


In the Grip of Madness

by phoenixreal



Series: Bleach Alpha/Beta and MPreg Fics [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Aizen Cares, Aizen has a Change of Heart, Alpha/Beta, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Amputation, Animal Traits, Animalistic, Arrancar, Arrancar City, BAMF Ichigo, Blood, Blood and Gore, Bloodplay, Bondage and Discipline, Broken Ichigo, Control Issues, Domination, Espada, Gender Confusion, Hurt Ichigo, Hurt/Comfort, Ichigo is Alone, Ichigo-centric, Insane Ichigo, Insanity, Kurotsuchi is an Asshole, Loss of Control, M/M, Mad Science, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mpreg, Mpreg Kurosaki Ichigo, Pain, Perfect Hypnosis, Pheromones, Post-Fullbringer Arc, Psychological Torture, Seme Aizen Sousuke, Seme Grimmjow Jaegerjaques, Sexual Confusion, Soul Society Turns on Ichigo, Sub Ichigo, Torture, Uke Ichigo, Unethical Experimentation, Violence, forced mating
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-08
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2018-08-20 04:49:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 12
Words: 78,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8236631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixreal/pseuds/phoenixreal
Summary: Canon Divergent Post Fullbringer Arc. Ichigo finds himself at the wrong end of Soul Society's wrath. Accused of a terrible crime he didn't commit, he's subjected to imprisonment and torture as punishment and revenge. When the true culprit reveals himself, and releases Soul Society from the grip of perfect hypnosis...they realize what they've done.





	1. When They Turn on Their Own

**Author's Note:**

> Birthday Gift for AppleCiderr! Happy Birthday!
> 
> This is a Canon Divergent Bleach Fanfiction.  This is super violent, super whumpy, super terrible to poor Ichigo… but that’s the way AppleCiderr likes it. ;)  Canon is consistent up after the Fullbringer Arc.
> 
> For now, mind the tags, folks. This one is gonna be a helluva ride.
> 
> Thanks to SapphireTou for help creating the Agarthan Arrancar society and providing her wonderful OCs.   
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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, little editing. If you've read this before, I've added some stuff, and things are changing. I THINK I got all the typos from Chapter One, and this should be the near final version of chapter one. Onward!

 

* * *

 

[Day 5]

Ichigo sat in his room reading through a book for some of his choices in University. He was trying to not think about anything related to Soul Society. He was really, really trying not to remember the events over the last few months. He felt betrayed still. To actually spy on him and measure his power and what he did… In a way, he guessed he understood. The way his powers worked was a bit scary, he supposed. Now that he knew about Kugo, he supposed that it made sense. He put down the book and looked at the badge where it sat on the desk beside his bed. He sighed. He still wasn’t sure what to think of everything that had happened. He was grateful that Soul Society gave his power back to him, but he still felt strange about it. There was something in the back of his mind.

_King. You know, if something feels wrong it is. But if it feels right…_

_Shut up, Shiro,_ Ichigo said with a sigh. _I just don’t know any more what I think about anyone._

There was a giggle in his head. _I do. Fuck ‘em. We should just take off on our own. Why don’t you just drop out and we’ll just go on forever. I just got you back, King. I don’t wanna lose you again._

 _Shiro…_ he thought with a deep sigh. The words that Shiro had said when he had given up his power rang in his head like bells. “The only one I wanted to protect…was you.”

_King, I don’t like what I feel._

_What do you mean?_ Ichigo said with a deep frown.

 _Something…something’s not right. I just…_ Shiro’s voice paused. _King. I’m afraid._

Ichigo realized the weight of that statement. The hollow? Afraid? Of what? The only time he’d been afraid was when he knew he was going to give up his power to defeat Aizen. Ichigo had no idea what else could make Shiro afraid. Shiro was a reflection of himself, of course.

“You’re scared…” he whispered out loud. “Of what?”

_King…I’m sorry I couldn’t do a better job. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you more. I’m…so sorry._

Ichigo nearly jumped out of his skin when the door opened with a bang. He looked up to see his father was staring at him with a look that he had never seen. It was somewhere between fury and sadness. There was no trace of the light that normally lit up his eyes when he looked at his son.

“Pop?” he asked, confused by the look.

“What did you do?” Isshin said with a deathly calm to his voice.

Ichigo blinked and shook his head. “What? What do you mean? I haven’t been doing much but getting ready to start classes…” he said looking at him with a sinking feeling in his stomach.

“I can’t protect you, Ichigo. You’ve…you’ve crossed the line. I…I don’t know you anymore. I can’t intervene,” he said and turned and left with no other comment.

Ichigo stared at the doorway and wondered just what the hell that had been about. He started to stand up and then felt the sensation of someone pushing his soul form out of his body. He stumbled and turned to watch his human form fall back onto his bed and he was staring at Rukia, a different glove on her hand. He shook his head, feeling odd when she did it. It was like it drained his power this time. It was like nothing he’d ever felt when she’d done it before.

“Hey, what was that for?” he asked as he looked at her. “Wh-what’s wrong with me…” he muttered and shook his head to try and clear the dizziness that came from his power lowering rapidly.

“I can’t believe you’d do this, Ichigo,” she said with deadly calm. She had a completely blank look on her face and he didn’t know what to think of it.

Ichigo shook his head. “What…what’s going on?” he said, looking at her and feeling the heaviness of several captain level reiatsu coming toward the house.

“We trusted you. We gave your power back, and you turn on us like this? You would do something so vile to us?” she said and her face twisted into something that Ichigo recognized as hatred. “How could you let this happen? To do this. I watched you, Ichigo. I saw what you did, every second of it. Don’t deny your guilt.”

Ichigo looked up as Byakuya and Renji stepped down into the room, the same look of disgust and hate on their faces.

“What…I didn’t…I haven’t even stepped out of my human body since I got back from Soul Society the last time I saw you!” he said, looking between three accusing stares. His head still felt weird.

“Your lies will not save you, Kurosaki,” Byakuya said. “What you have done…there is no redemption for you. I knew that when I saw the creature the first time we fought that this day would come. I regret that we did not take preemptive action sooner.”

Ichigo just stared as Renji took a step forward and snapped a collar around his neck. Ichigo gasped, choking, as his shihakuso faded into white, his powers fading into the background. He heard Shiro screaming in the back of his mind before he was silenced.

Sobbing quietly, Shiro’s voice rang clearly. _I’m so sorry, King…so sorry…I loved you, know that…_

Ichigo choked a sob back himself as fell forward and felt the world fade away.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

[Day 6]

Ichigo woke up alone, in a place he remembered vividly from when he had rescued Rukia. He turned to the wall and stared out the slit onto what used to be Sokoyu Hill. And he was alone. He couldn’t hear Shiro. He couldn’t hear Zangetsu. He couldn’t feel anything. He reached tentative hands up and felt the stone collar around his neck. Seki seki stone. The same thing this place was made of. It blocked all reiatsu. He tried to reach for his head and found his wrists were chained to the floor in rings on either side of him. He started when he heard a voice behind and above him and saw Renji standing at the top of the stairs.

“I don’t know you, you are nothing to us,” Renji said with a flat, dead sound to his voice. “There is nothing but suffering in Soul Society for you now. You would be strung up and destroyed on Sokoyu Hill if it hadn’t been destroyed. So instead, you’ll stay here until his services and memorial are finished. What you’ve done…death is too good for you. Your name will be profane in the mouths of all in Soul Society. None will remember you with anything but scorn.”

Ichigo looked at him with wide eyes. He pulled on the chains and they rattled loudly in the empty room. “What…what are you talking about? I haven’t done anything!” he screamed at him. “Why am I here? What happened?”

Renji snorted. “You were my best friend. But I would gladly end your life right now if the Head Captain hadn’t decreed that you would stay here and rot until you are forgotten. At few years of solitude should encourage you to explain yourself and stop this act of innocence. The fact that you will not admit to your deeds is worse than what you’ve done. You will fade from all memory.”

Ichigo shook his head. “What…I don’t…what do you think I did?” he screamed at him. Renji was his best friend. He was the one person he trusted more than anyone. What could he possibly think he’d done?

“You murdered Captain Jūshirō Ukitake, and there is never going to be forgiveness for you here,” Renji said and turned and left him.

Ichigo fell to his knees and stared after him. He didn’t kill anyone. He hadn’t even left his human form in almost two months. He sat there and tried to understand what was happening to him. How could they think he killed Jūshirō? How? He couldn’t have done that. There was no way. He hadn’t left his human body. He couldn’t even get to Soul Society by himself, anyway, he never had been able to do that. Not only that, but the vasto lorde form was impossible to control. It wasn’t something he could make happen; he’d been dead the last time. He licked his lips, staring at the bracers with the chains and nodded to himself.

“They’ll come back. They’ll realize they’re wrong. They have to. I didn’t do anything. I trust them,” he said emphatically as he sat back on his heels. “They’ll investigate it. And they’ll figure out what really happened. Renji and Rukia wouldn’t let me stay here if I wasn’t guilty. There’s no way. I’ll wait,” he said and looked up to the door. Four days passed before it opened again, and he waited.

Ichigo believed that they would realize they were wrong, and that was okay. He’d be fine with it, and he’d go home and carry on with his life, or he’d stay in Soul Society to figure out what happened to Jūshirō. Something had happened to him, and he knew he didn’t do anything, so he had to find out who did. He knew they’d figure it out. Of course they were. They were his friends and family. They wouldn’t believe he could do something so terrible. Renji and Rukia were upset, that’s all. They didn’t mean what they said, neither did his father. It would all be fine.

[Day 10]

There was a bang and he looked to see his father in his shihakuso, Kurotsuchi, Orihime, Uryū, and Chad walking down with the Head Captain.

The head captain stood in front of him and looked at him.

“Ichigo Kurosaki. You are summarily charged and convicted of the murder of Captain Jūshirō Ukitake. You have done this with no honor and after Soul Society has instilled trust in a second substitute Shinigami. Without the Sokoyu, you will not be executed. The Gotei 13 have decided that for such a terrible crime, death would be too kind. You will remain here, alone, for a period of no less than five years. At the end of each year, you will be offered an opportunity to confess your crimes. If you choose to do so, you will be mercifully executed and allowed to return to the cycle. After five years, if you choose not to unburden yourself, Captain Kurotsuchi has be requested time to examine your unique physiology to understand what has caused this terrible turn of events. It is with great sadness I deliver the verdict.”

The head captain turned and left, leaving the others there. Ichigo looked at his father and his friends franticly. “I didn’t do this! I didn’t kill anyone!”

Kurosuchi smiled at him and held up a device that projected an image of the koi pond where Ukitake often sat. To Ichigo’s horror, he watched as his own image appeared behind him, wearing the Vizard mask, and stabbed the captain of the thirteenth division through the back. He watched as his form dropped to his knees behind him and gasped as the hollow mask expanded and shifted into the vasto lorde form that he’d held to fight Ulquiorra. He consumed Ukitake’s soul entirely. The image winked out and Ichigo stared at the space for a long time. He looked at his father.

“That…that wasn’t me! I didn’t do that! You know I haven’t left home in two months, Pop! How would I even get here? How? I don’t have the ability to open a senkaimon!” he yelled.

Isshin shook his head and turned away and waited with his back to Ichigo.

“Pop! Please! I wouldn’t do something like this! I can’t! I can’t use that form at will!” he begged as he tried to get his hands free, but he was so weak without any of his reiatsu. “I wouldn’t let anything like that happen! I’d kill myself before I let the hollow control me! You know that!”

He looked up as Orihime came forward, tears streaming down her face. Her lip quivered and she slapped him. He looked at her and couldn’t believe they would think this of him.

“I loved you, Kurosaki. I loved you. To think, you are the monster you swore you weren’t. You will get what you deserve,” she whispered and went to stand beside Isshin with her back to him and he could hear her sobbing.

Ichigo looked at Chad with pleading eyes as he stood quietly facing him. “Chad…you’ve known me for so long, you know I would never hurt someone! I don’t even kill the people I fight!”

“I would not have though you capable of being corrupted. I know that Ichigo would not hurt anyone. The creature inside you, however, had no such restraint. I am sorry it has corrupted the person that was my friend,” Chad said and turned away as well.

Ichigo’s eyes went wide. “No! You know that! Uryū! Please, I can’t do something like this! You…you know that! We’ve fought back to back how many times? You know I can’t do this!” he said and he felt tears starting to slide down his cheeks.

Uryū looked for a long time at Ichigo then shook his head. “I hated all Shinigami, and I hated hollows, and right now, all I want to do is put an arrow between your eyes, Kurosaki. But I won’t because destroying your soul is too good of a punishment for you. That thing corrupted you. There is nothing of the person that was my friend left, is there?” he said quietly.

Ichigo shook his head. “No! Ishida! You know me! I can’t do such a thing! You know…” he stammered but Uryū moved and punched him across the face, sending him to the floor as blood dripped from his lip. Uryū shook his head and spit on him as he turned away.

Kurotsuchi smirked. “You will be mine, Kurosaki. We’ll take you apart and find out why that created hollow of Aizen’s managed to corrupt you so completely. First, though, the head captain wants to give you a chance to think about your actions and admit to them.”

They stood there for a moment and Ichigo couldn’t help. He pulled himself up to his knees and sat back on his heels, hands laying limply in his lap with the palms open and up toward them. “Please! I didn’t do anything…but I’ll give up my power, all of it! I’ll go back to being human again, I don’t care, just don’t leave me here alone! I’ll give it up, all of it, you can take it all away! I’ll never even fight again, whatever you need me to do, just let me go home! I want to be with my family, my sisters, you, Pop! Please, I’m your son and you’re just going to leave me here like this?”

Isshin turned back and looked at him as he stared at him. “I no longer have a son. He’s dead. His ashes have already been laid to rest by his mother. I was proud of my son. He was a good boy and would have made a good man. I’m sorry that I never got to see my son grow up. My daughters will remember the son I used to have, not the monster that is locked into this tower.”

Ichigo’s breath caught and he felt more tears sliding down his face as he watched them walk up the stairs and leave. None looked back at him again. He didn’t want to cry, but he couldn’t help it. His heart was breaking into a million pieces and everyone abandoned him there. He didn’t care what they’d said, he didn’t, he would have forgiven them in a second if they’d just come back to him and took him home. The door slammed with a bang and he flinched violently at the sound.

“No…please…don’t leave me…don’t…don’t leave me alone….” He sobbed as the chains released, leaving him free to move around the small room. He simply sat there for hours, staring at the door, willing it to open again and someone, anyone, to come in and tell him it was all a mistake.

The door didn’t open again.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

[Day 14]

“Yo, Aizen-sama,” came a voice into the nearly empty conference room.

“What is it, Grimmjow?”

The chair turned and Sōsuke Aizen set his eyes on the sixth Espada. Grimmjow grinned at Aizen as he sauntered up and sat in the chair to the left of him. He kicked his legs up and leaned back, running a hand over his blue hair.

“You were fucking right, they turned on him without a second thought,” he said with a shake of his head. “Never thought it would be so fast. Shit, it was like what, two weeks?”

“They didn’t kill him; I hope?  You were to retrieve him if they were planning to execute him,” he said with a sigh. “Please tell me that you didn’t make a mess of this.”

“Nah, they’ve put him in solitary for a while,” Grimmjow said with a smile. “Fucking locked him in that white tower of theirs. I was at the ‘trial’, whatever you want to call it using that device that Octavo gave me. Here, I got a recording Aaroniero made.”

Grimmjow tossed a disk in the center of the table and it projected an image above it.

The captains stood in their positions with their lieutenants standing behind them. The Head Captain spoke up first. “Present the evidence.”

Rukia stepped up. “I witnessed Ichigo Kurosaki enter the grounds near Ukitake-Taichou’s koi pond. He impaled him from behind and…and…he fell down to his knees. Ichigo…or whatever the thing is that used to be Ichigo…knelt down and…consumed his soul form. He then left in a sonido. The sound was not a Shunpo. The reiatsu was tightly controlled, something that Ichigo Kurosaki has never been able to do. It felt hollow and very powerful. There is no doubt, however, that it was Ichigo Kurosaki’s reiatsu.”

Rukia stepped back behind the two lieutenants for the thirteen division and looked down. The head captain looked around. “Confirmation has been made by Kurotsuchi-Taichou?”

Kurotsuchi stepped forward. “I retrieved the memory from Kuchiki-san’s mind and was able to record it. I have the disk here to submit as evidence,” he said and moved forward to hand it to the head captain. “No other confirmation was possible at the location of the attack.”

The Head Captain played it as everyone watched. “The evidence is damning. Is there anyone that wishes to present any doubt?”

Zaraki shook his head. “No. Something happened. That was not something Kurosaki would do.”

“Do you have any evidence, Zaraki-Taichou?”

“I know he would not do something like this, he’s a fighter, not that thing, that’s enough,” he said and glared at them.

Everyone else was quiet. The Head Captain spoke up again. “Very well. We will vote for or against conviction.”

The vote was unanimous save Zaraki. “Now, the punishment for this crime.”

“He should not be executed and returned to the cycle,” Renji said from behind Byakuya. “That is far too good for him.”

Byakuya looked up. “Sou-taichou. I would suggest that we give him time in confinement and then allow him to admit to his deeds. If he can admit to his deeds, then he should be allowed a merciful execution. He may not, however. I saw the creature and it is possible that he did not do it while in control of himself. That does not matter, however. If Kurosaki cannot control the creature, he must be executed as a clear and present threat.”

“Very well. We shall deliver the verdict to the prisoner,” the Head Captain said. “He will be remanding to confinement for five years. If during that time he confesses, he will be executed to return to the cycle. If he does not…”

“Pardon me,” Kurotsuchi said with a grin. “If I may, if he does not confess, he may not remember the deed, as Kuchiki-Taichou suggests. It may be honest on his part that he does not recall the event, instead the hollow having taken him over without his knowledge. If he cannot confess after five years, I recommend allowing me to try and extract the hollow from him, or at the very least, understand how this has happened. Either I will be able to remove the hollow, and let him free once we are certain he is not a danger, or I will not, and we can execute him at that point.”

The head captain nodded. “Agreed.”

The recording faded out. Grimmjow snorted. “They didn’t even fucking pick up on what you did to prove he was innocent. I mean, damn, I could have put that together, and I’m not a fucking captain.”

“You see that, my dear friend?” Aizen said and looked at the other end of the table where the white haired Jūshirō Ukitake sat with a thick collar of seki seki stone and glaring at Aizen. His shihakuso was white and his swords were encased in a vault of the same stone that was around his neck. “You swore that your people would give him a fair trial to prove his innocence. I left so much that they could have seen, and only Zaraki refused to believe it. Of course, only because he sees him as good fighter. That was not a trail, it was a confirmation of what they had already decided. They didn’t give him even a chance to speak.”

“Why?” Jūshirō said as he shook his head. “Why would you do this to Ichigo?” He chose to ignore the fact that Soul Society had just did what he had feared the most. After what happened with Rukia, and the other substitute Shinigami… They had not learned.

“To show him that his friends are not his friends. Do you have any idea how difficult setting up this ruse was for me, Jūshirō?” Aizen said with a sigh. “Putting those Arrancar in place to make it look like my Espada died to your people. Then Gin turns on me? That was perhaps the only thing that really surprised me. Tōsen’s sacrifice was appreciated, however. It was an excellent distraction. And then, the poor sacrificial lamb that is now housed in the maggot’s nest with my face.”

“Hey, I didn’t let no underling take my fucking place,” Grimmjow growled. “Most of us, anyway. I finished my fucking fight, and Barragan, Zommari, and Yammy went down before you got them out. Szayelaporro had that stupid regeneration device, still can’t believe that damn thing worked. Then you pulled Ulquiorra’s broken ass back before it got obliterated, anyway. You did a good job with that, too. That stupid Quincy and woman never noticed when he disappeared and reappeared. I don’t fucking miss Yammy, though, fucking asshole,” he muttered. “Zommari was just fucking creepy.”

“I know, Grimmjow, I know. At least I was able to heal Starrk and Hallibel’s fraccion when we came back from the World of the Living. As luck would have it, I managed to save Nnoitra before he perished completely,” he said with a sigh. “We did suffer losses, of course. All but a few that you saw die, did. Barragan’s fraccion, Grimmjow’s, the others that were sacrificed like the priverion. Szayelaporro wasn’t too difficult, he had a way to resurrect himself infinitely in place already. And all the ajunca that died in the siege. So in all, the only illusions I maintained were replacing Ulquiorra, which was easy since Ichigo hadn’t seen my Shikai, however, in that state, he didn’t care what he destroyed. It looked somewhat like the monster he was fighting, but not quite…you never realized that the woman had viewed my Shikai. And the Quincy? He wasn’t paying attention enough to notice the change.”

Aizen smiled again. “Then, of course, my own illusion of death, again. I really, really am shocked that you fell for that twice. I did use the hypnosis when Nnoitra fought Zaraki, of course, only at the very end so he would think him dead. Nnoitra wasn’t about to pass up on a fight like that. You all underestimated my abilities, greatly.”

“I can’t believe your Zanpakutō was able to do this much,” Jūshirō said as he shook his head. “We knew, even after you feigned your own death, what it could do. And we should have seen your ruse for what it was.”

“It took a while to restore my forces, Jūshirō, that’s why it took so long. But my real aim was the Kurosaki boy. He has my greatest work inside him, and I will have it returned,” Aizen said with a shrug.

“You never really wanted the King’s Key,” Jūshirō said with a sigh.

“Not at all. I wanted the boy. But first, I had to see his true power and potential. And now, I’ll show him his friends and family are not who he believes they are, and then he will come to me willingly as I actually retrieve the oaken and get to the Soul King,” Aizen said with a smile. “I may have not wanted it then, but I will take it eventually. I have patience, Jūshirō. Much patience. And everything is going according to my plan.”

Jūshirō shook his head and felt the deep dread filling him. There was no hope now. If they truly believed he was dead, and Ichigo was the cause, Jūshirō knew that Rukia and Renji would not intercede on Ichigo’s behalf. They wouldn’t listen to reason unless Jūshirō could return to them. They would not want to think that he wasn’t dead after what they saw. And then, the idea that he was actually imprisoned would be beyond their imagining.

“How did you manage to convince them that Ichigo killed me?” he said.

“That was simple. I went with Ulquiorra, used the hypnosis to show Rukia a different scene, and he and I returned with you,” Aizen said flippantly. “You didn’t even feel our presence. The one thing having Szayelaporro around is great for is his ability to invent things.”

Jūshirō shook his head. He had nothing to say for that. Aizen smirked and looked to Grimmjow.

“Sexta, take our friend to his new accommodations. I’m sure he’s quite exhausted with his power sealed like that. Oh, and Jūshirō, don’t try anything. I’d hate to have to actually kill you, and then simply destroy the boy,” Aizen said as Grimmjow pulled the powerless Shinigami to his feet and took him to his tower prison.

Aizen smiled to himself in the quiet of the white room. Oh, they would have no idea what was coming, he thought to himself.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

[Year 1]

The first year was easier than he expected. He focused on dealing with what had happened. He rationalized that their grief clouded their judgement, of course it had. He knew that his father was just trying to protect his sisters. If he sided with Ichigo, he took the chance that Soul Society would turn on them. He’d stare out the slight slit in the wall and see the Shinigami move around their lives. Now and then, he’d catch sight of someone he knew, but doing so only tore at his heart even more. But surely they would realize that they were wrong. His mind would repeat the horrific images from what they’d shown him. He hadn’t done that. He couldn’t have, could he? Maybe he did do that. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t get to Soul Society alone. How could they believe that he could have done that?

Surely. He was hopeful. He had to be to make it through this.

When the head captain came to him at the end of the first year, he’d begged him to think about how he could have done what they accused him of. He told him that he couldn’t have done it, and begged him to just try to figure out what really happened because Ukitake’s real murderer was still out there. The Head Captain said nothing as he listened to Ichigo until he asked the question.

“Will you confess to the heinous murder of Captain Jūshirō Ukitake?”

Ichigo had told him no. He had left Ichigo without a word. He stood in the room for a long moment before he fell to his knees. That was it? A year and that was all he got? One question?

[Year 2]

The second year was worse. He was having trouble holding onto hope. He would stand and stare out the slit in the wall and just stare. He paced around the room, and knew exactly how many steps it was in every direction. He could find his way without looking. He knew how many steps and how far. His clothes were beginning to tatter, and he was wondering if they would give him any more. He would break down and cry now and then, mostly out of desperation. He just wanted to hear someone’s voice, anyone’s voice.

At the end of that second year, Ichigo had broken down and sobbed, begging him to please let him go home. He begged him to strip his powers away, do anything, render him human, anything, he just wanted to leave the confinement.

“Will you confess to the heinous murder of Captain Jūshirō Ukitake?”

The head captain left without comment once again. He had sobbed into his arms until he passed out afterward. Another year. Another year alone…

[Year 3]

The third year he couldn’t help but feel like he was never leaving the small room. He was so mad, though. He would scream at nothing and punch at the walls until his hands bled. When the did he’d just stand and watch the blood drip from his knuckles onto the floor. It reminded him of rain. He’d always liked the rain. It was so very pretty. He shook it away and felt the anger build. How dare they? How dare they think him capable of doing something like this? They didn’t even talk to him before he was convicted! And Rukia, that bitch…how dare she stand there and tell him that he did such a thing. And when he saw Renji again, he was going to pull all that obnoxious red hair out of his head for what he’d said. How dare they!

The end of the third year, Ichigo was still so very angry. He screamed and yelled at the head captain. He told him how much he had given to Soul Society and how mad he was that they could simply abandon him like this. He raged and told him how terrible they were.

“Will you confess to the heinous murder of Captain Jūshirō Ukitake?”

Ichigo had screamed at him that he didn’t kill anyone, he didn’t even kill people he beat in battle, otherwise Kenpachi, Ikkaku, and Byakuya would be dead! But then, the head captain had simply walked away, leaving Ichigo gasping for breath on the floor after his tirade of anger. Ichigo couldn’t make the voice in his head that kept cackling and screaming stop after that.

[Year 4]

The fourth year stretched on endlessly. Time became ephemeral for him. The voice, the one he started calling Shiro because it sounded like the hollow, kept telling him things that made him wonder if he was worth saving anymore. It would laugh and talk to him and sometimes he’d talk back to it. In a way it was comforting. He knew it wasn’t real, though, so what was the harm? It was just his mind coping with the loneliness. Then, as time passed, he simply would lay on the floor and stare into nothingness, talking to “Shiro” now and then. There was no point. There was nothing in him anymore.

That fourth year, he simply sat against the wall and looked at the head captain. He said nothing to him until he asked the question Ichigo knew was coming.

“Will you confess to the heinous murder of Captain Jūshirō Ukitake?”

Ichigo just told him that they didn’t kill anyone. The head captain turned and left him again. The head captain didn’t comment that he had used “we” when speaking of himself.

[Year 5]

The fifth year seemed to phase in and out. He would scream and rage at nothing, then fall to the floor and sob until he started laughing. That was when he started trying to kill himself. He’d dig into his flesh and watch the blood flow and laugh until he passed out. He would wake to find his body mended. They wouldn’t let him die. Of course, they wouldn’t let him die. The second voice would chastise him for doing something like that. Zan, he called this voice. Slowly, though, the idea that these two voices were in his head and not real began to lose purchase in his thoughts. He would have whispered conversations with Zan and Shiro, and then they’d fight with each other, which that was annoying.

The end of the fifth year loomed. The sound of the door unsealing frightened him into yelping in surprise. He looked up and scrambled to his feet. Even though he had told himself to stop hoping, when that door opened each year, he held onto the barest shred of hope. He hoped they had realized their mistake. He hoped they had figured out that he hadn’t done what they said he’d done, what they’d seen him do. He watched as the head captain and his lieutenant came down with Kurotsuchi. Five years. If they didn’t believe him, Kurotsuchi was taking him. They approached.

“Ichigo Kurosaki. The period of five years ends of your solitary confinement for contemplation has passed. You have the choice to admit to and ask forgiveness for your deeds and be executed with compassion, or you will be remanded to the Research division to understand what has caused your descent into hollow behavior. Four times you have continued to deny your actions. Will you confess to the heinous murder of Captain Jūshirō Ukitake?”

Ichigo shook his head. “We…” he coughed as his voice cracked from disuse. “We didn’t…I didn’t kill Jūshirō!” he said despite planning to admit to it.

He had tried to make the choice to just tell them he did it so they’d kill him and release him from this torment. But he couldn’t admit to something he never would have done in his life. He couldn’t do it. Shiro laughed in his head and called him weak.

The head captain nodded. “Very well, Captain Kurotsuchi, he is yours to do as you will. I will continue to check in to see if he decides to confess each year,” he said and he left.

Ichigo’s eyes went wide as he felt something, some sort of kido, warp around him and the world faded from existence for a while.

When he woke, he found himself strapped to a table that was tilted halfway up and blinking into the bright lights of Kurotsuchi lab. His mouth was gagged and there were people running around and talking. He looked up as Kurotsuchi came up in front of him.

“Hello, Kurosaki,” he said and gave him a look. “You see, I’m slightly insane, I’m sure you know,” he said. “So now, we’re going to find out what makes you who you are.”

Kurotsuchi leaned forward and whispered in his ear. “For what it’s worth, I don’t believe that you killed Ukitake,” he said. “But I voted to convict you, making it almost unanimous, because I wanted to get ahold of you to experiment and research on this created Hollow that Aizen made.”

Ichigo’s eyes widened as he stepped back. “Now, this will hurt. A lot,” he said as he injected something into Ichigo’s arm. Ichigo didn’t know when he stopped screaming. He didn’t think he ever did.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

[Year 6]

The first year with the crazy scientist was the easiest, of course. The first year mostly was comprised of Kurotsuchi testing every aspect of him. He mostly spent it in incredible degrees of agony. Within the first few months, after the testing, Kurotsuchi had come up with ways to dampen Ichigo’s powers without using seki seki stone. This was a great breakthrough for his research, for one. He found that by injecting certain serums, he could artificially block the flow of spiritual energy in the body. Doing so was incredibly painful, excruciating, in fact, because it was something that was not tolerable by a being fueled by spiritual energies completely. It took time, but Kurotsuchi began to fine tune the procedure, and instead of knocking Ichigo unconscious for days at a time, it would only cut access to one area of his spiritual energy. But by the end, he sat in the cell he’d been given and glared at the head captain as he asked the question again.

“Will you confess to the heinous murder of Captain Jūshirō Ukitake?”

Ichigo shook his head violently and ran at the clear barrier. He screamed at him. “No! No! We…I never killed him!” He beat on the clear wall and continued to scream at him even after the sound was turned off to the outside. He slid to his knees and watched him leave again.

[Year 7]

The second year was worse. Kurotsuchi was trying to rip his soul apart, he knew it without being told. The serums were less incapacitating, but no less excruciating. Kurotsuchi would suppress Ichigo’s hollow reiatsu in an attempt to separate it. He said he was trying to remove the hollow. Considering the hollow was his Zanpakutō spirit, that had been more than a little complicated, and horribly painful. He was barely able to think. Shiro and Zan kept him company though. The feeling of being ripped apart inside and out had become so familiar that he had begun to wonder if there was any other way to feel. By the time the head captain came back, he sat on the cot in the corner of the room with his arms wrapped around his knees and rocking back and forth.

“Will you confess to the heinous murder of Captain Jūshirō Ukitake?”

This time, he just shook his head and muttered, “No, no, no…” until he left. He knew he was losing his mind. Granted, he was already half gone. He heard Shiro and Zan all the time now. Now and then, a moment of clarity would hit him and he’d think how crazy it was to be talking to them when they were sealed, then it slipped away like water dripping from his hands. He didn’t know what to think of it. The voices had been easy to ignore while he was in the tower, but they were harder and harder to ignore as he stopped being able to push them back.

[Year 8]

The third year was brutal. Kurotsuchi had decided to cut and dissect him to test the limits of his regeneration, or really, if he could regenerate at all. He grew used to the sight of his own blood cascading down his body. He had removed his fingers and limbs and reattached them or regrew them several times. He watched as his hand bled again, the fingers missing as Kurotsuchi discussed if the regeneration would take effect this time. He giggled suddenly. It was kind of pretty, the way it ran from his hand and puddled into the floor. He laughed again, and he didn’t stop for a long time.

“Will you confess to the murder of Captain Jūshirō Ukitake?”

Ichigo laughed at him and waved him off. He was amused by Shiro at the moment. He’d mentioned that when the blood puddled it looked like a painting. He thought it was hilarious. He turned and stared at the head captain. “I bet his blood was pretty.”

[Year 9]

At the end of the fourth year, Ichigo sat on the floor in a cell staring at the ground below him. Blood was flowing steadily from his mouth and eyes and he just watched it. The burning in his veins had faded a little while ago, but it had burst veins in his throat and eyes. He’d been quite for a long time now, after he stopped screaming. Now and then a laugh would escape his lips. He leaned over and started drawing in the blood that was on the floor. He dropped onto his elbows and laid there, drawing into the blood slowly. He laughed and made designs.

 _Look, look, it’s a birdy!_ Came Shiro’s giggling voice in his head.

“I know,” Ichigo said out loud, his voice bubbly from the blood still leaking from his throat. “Pretty…” he muttered as he moved and started drawing something else.

 _Why do you draw something like that, Ichigo?_ The other voice, Zangetsu, or Zan, the one that didn’t like to have fun, said. Ichigo looked at the picture he’d drawn as it started to morph back into the puddle. It had been a stick figure being eaten by another figure. He drew another of someone violently hurting a figure.

“Why not, Zan?” he muttered again, coughing as blood sprayed everywhere over his hand. He held it up.

 _Don’t think about what they’ve done to you,_ Zan said in his head.

“But they like to hurt us,” he muttered. “They all come and hurt us.”

_I know, Ichigo, but you have to stop this. You’re going insane._

“I think it’s too late, Zan,” Ichigo said, tilting his head to the side and then drawing a long jagged nail down his leg as blood beaded. His hair was dripping his own blood and fell down onto his chest now. His hair hadn’t been cut or cleaned since the day he was shoved in the tower and now drug the floor easily.

He giggled for a long time. “It’s pretty!” he shrieked as he fell forward into the bloody puddle. He sat up suddenly a second later.

“Shiro! What should we do now?” he gasped.

 _I don’t know. Cut off your finger again, that was fun, huh?_ Shiro’s voice answered. _I like watching them regrow it, the way it kinda oozes out and reforms…_

“Oh yeah!” he said and sat up, blood now dripping from his front down to the floor. It wasn’t like he had any clothes on. He couldn’t remember the last time he had clothes. It was a moot point because they got bloody so quickly. His hair fell in front of his eyes, matted and falling to the floor where it drug through the blood there.

He stared at his right hand and then put his right index finger into his mouth and started slowly chewing into the flesh and bone, giggling now and then. Finally, after a long while he spit the digit to the floor and stared as blood ran down his arm.

“Pretty,” he said as he stared at it.

The head captain stood outside the cell and watched. Ichigo looked up, seeing him there and crawled over to him and put two bloody hands on the clear barrier and grinned at him.

“Will you confess to the heinous murder of Captain Jūshirō Ukitake?”

Ichigo tilted his head to the side and licked at the blood on his still bleeding hand. “I wish I had seen his blood, so pretty on the white…” he muttered and then set into a fit of giggling. The head captain turned and left again. He would return again the next year.

After the Head Captain left Kurotsuchi sighed. “I think he’s completely gone in the head,” Akon said beside him. “That’s the fourth time he’s bitten one of his fingers off in the last week. Didn’t he try to claw his throat out last night?”

“Hmm, yeah,” Kurotsuchi said as he watched as Ichigo rocked back and forth and laughed between muttering random things as though he was talking to someone. “He seems to have started hearing that voice more. He looks to talk to someone almost all the time. Give him the third serum,” he said with a nod.

“You sure, sir?” Akon said. “Last time you had to revive him after the second one.”

“Yes, yes, I’m sure. I want to see if it can pull that created hollow out of him one last time before I proceed to the secondary tests.”

Akon nodded, pressing a button and flooding the observation cell with a gas that knocked their subject out. He fell with a splat into the blood puddle and Akon went in, dragging him out by the arm into the lab again. He put him up on the table again, taking a moment to secure him with the restraints. He sighed and injected the third serum. Ichigo gasped and yanked hard on the restraints on before he started to thrash and scream. He turned and went over into the other area to wait for the serum to complete its work.

After a couple hours, he sighed. No luck. He injected a healing accelerator and watched as the finger started to reform that he’d bitten off and the blood staunched from his throat and eyes. Akon sighed. Every experiment yielded more confusing answers. He looked up as Kurotsuchi came back.

“Well?” he demanded.

“No luck, sir. Just seems that the hollow signature is integrated fully into the rest of his soul. I don’t think we can separate them. Trying to just causes the soul to become more damaged. I don’t think we can do it, and if we did, I don’t think there would be anything viable left,” Akon said with a sigh.

Kurotsuchi nodded. “Put him back in the observation cell. Pump in some of that gas that Rin was working on.”

“The hollow pheromones?” Akon asked.

“Yes, let’s see how susceptible to hollow specific drives he is…” he said as he left. “The lower hollows we’ve discovered have at least three different base drives. They are driven like animals to consume, to destroy, and to procreate. Let’s see if we can’t activate those drives in him. Since I can’t separate the hollow, I might as well use this opportunity to have one in a controlled environment. Go ahead and release some of the seals on the hollow reiatsu and increase the sealing on the Shinigami powers. He acts like an animal already, no harm in treating him like one,” Kurotsuchi said with grin as he left.

In the cell, Ichigo giggled again, having woken up and started ramming himself into the walls randomly, falling down and crying in pain then laughing. The blood had been cleaned up while he had been out, but he started to gnaw on his hand again, this time at the wrist. It was so pretty.

[Year 10]

Time wasn’t consecutive. Time was skipping and moving and there was nothing he could do about it. He was screaming. He was sobbing. Blood, bone, pain…it mixed together and his whole being seemed to be assaulted with his very existence. Hollow screams and nightmares filled his senses, and there was no such thing as reality. It faded into and out of existence, and he wanted it to stop, all of it to stop. He couldn’t, though. No matter how hard he tried. He wanted to feel again, and then when he did, all he felt was pain. He was dying each day but it never ended…

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

[Year 11, Month 1]

“Sir, you might want to hear at this,” Szayelaporro said as he dropped a disk with the surveillance on the table in front of him.

Aizen nodded and watched the latest reports from his Espada that had infiltrated Soul Society. Aaroniero was still inside Kurotsuchi’s lab and had been particularly valuable. He had only been able to get monthly updates, sometimes with a clip of someone talking or someone doing something. This one had Kurotsuchi talking to one of his underlings and discussing ways to dispose of him. He had been with him for five years, and honestly Aizen was surprised that he had made it that long before his usefulness declining.

“I think his usefulness has reached its end for Mayuri,” he commented. “Extract him,” he said with a sigh. “Send Primera through Sexta, full resurrection. Let’s make sure they realize what’s happened. Have Grimmjow get ready to return dear Jūshirō. Remind him to put on a good show.”

“Yes, Aizen-sama,” Szayelaporro said with a smirk as he headed out to relay the messages. He honestly wanted to get his hands on the Shinigami as well, ten years waiting had been a lot for him.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

[Year 11, Month 1]

The heavy and powerful sudden reiatsu that crashed over the Serietei was surprising to say the least. No one expected Arrancar, especially not Espada level Arrancar, to suddenly break through into Soul Society. Over two years had passed since the fight with those from Hueco Mundo, and they hadn’t heard from anyone related to that fight since then. Honestly, in the twelve years since then, things had been rather quiet. No one questioned it, however. A peaceful time was a good thing. Of course, it should have made the Shinigami wonder why.

Grimmjow landed in the center of the Seireitei with the small black box in his hand, in full released form, something only some of those present had seen. He looked around to see himself surrounded by most of the Captains in less than five minutes, all with Shikai ready.

“You! How did you get here?!” Rukia said as she stepped forward. She wore a captain’s white Hiyori now, apparently having taken her captain’s place.

Grimmjow grinned as above him Ulquiorra, Starrk, Barragan, Nnoitra, and Hallibel appeared. All six of them were in their released forms.

“What?” Rukia said as she stared at the six Espada, most of which should be dead.

Grimmjow smirked. “Go get our package, Starrk. I’ll take care of the delivery when you come back.”

Starrk yawned. “Ah, yes,” he muttered and disappeared in a sonido with several Shinigami on his heels.

“I asked you a question!” Rukia yelled, cold roiling off her body.

“Ice Princess, just chill the fuck out,” he said with a smirk. “I’m waiting on Starrk before I give you the present I brought. I mean, you’ll love it I’m sure,” he said as the other Espada landed around him. No one said anything, none of the Espada even moved.

A few minutes later, after a series of explosions and much yelling, Starrk landed beside Grimmjow with a bundle wrapped in a black cloth. It was moving.

“Hurry up, he’s rather hard to hold onto,” Starrk said with a yawn.

Grimmjow tossed the cube into the air and there was a subtle explosion and everyone gasped as someone they didn’t expect stumbled down to his knees coughing madly out of the smoke. It cleared slowly around the figure and he stood.

“Ukitake-taichou?” Rukia said as she dropped to her knees in front of him. She was shocked slightly as there seemed to be a clear barrier that had dropped around the Espada when Grimmjow dropped the box. Outside, the rest of the captains had appeared as well as most the lieutenants. Everyone stared in utterly stunned silence.

Grimmjow laughed out loud. “Damn you people are so damn stupid. Lemme see the brat, Starrk,” Grimmjow said with a sigh.

“Sexta, I’m not sure you should let him out…I think he’s completely mad,” Starrk said as he passed the dark bundle to him. He’d had a hard enough time getting clothes onto him before he knocked the rest of the twelfth division flat. Except, Aaroniero, of course. He’d headed back by way of a different garganta that was disguised well by some os Szayelaporro devices.

“I ain’t gonna let him out there, not fucking stupid. The barrier Szayelaporro gave me’s up. Remember, we’re supposed to put on a show?” Grimmjow said as he yanked the black cover off the top revealing that it Ichigo who was wrapped in black cloth.

“Grimmjow…” he breathed and started giggling madly. “Pretty blood?” he muttered and giggled again.

“Yeah, yeah, fucking you and the pretty blood,” Grimmjow said as he bit down on his finger and held it dripping in front of Ichigo’s face. His eyes locked onto the dripping blood freely and he giggled again. “He said you’d like it if I bled for you. One sure way to get you to come alone peacefully.”

“Pretty! See…see…Shiro…look…pretty!” he gasped out, his head following every move Grimmjow’s hand made with wide bloodshot eyes.

Ukitake was still coughing as he turned to stare at Grimmjow and Ichigo. “No,” he whispered. “Oh, no…Ichigo…what did they do to you…why?”

Ichigo giggled again, tearing his arm through the black cloth easily and grabbing Grimmjow’s hand suddenly. He smiled and breathed in deeply before he bit down on his finger where it was bleeding.

“Fuck!” Grimmjow yelped and backhanded him with the other hand. “Fucking hell, try to take off my damned finger, bastard,” he muttered as Ichigo rolled head over heels and bashed into the clear barrier. “Go bite another one of your own off! Fuck,” he muttered licking at the much larger wound now. “Mother fucker, when he said he was insane, he wasn’t fucking kidding. Shit.”

Starrk sighed as Ichigo struggled out of the black covering as it had wrapped all around him. “I was afraid he’d break the binding woven into it. I warned Octavo that as soon as he got the idea to move he’d break such a weak thing,” he said as he yawned. “No matter,” he said with a sigh. “I doubt it would matter how we transported him.”

Ichigo had crawled out of the black mess and was sitting down on the ground cross legged and rocking, eyes distant from the others. He seemed to be taking in everything around him with wide, curious eyes. It was obvious to the Espada that he hadn’t been outside in a very long time. He was wearing a tattered looking yukata and was barefoot. His hair was long and matted with blood and dirt, falling down almost to the middle of his back. His eyes were wide and both bruised. Where the yukata fell off his shoulder, stripes of scarring and bruising covered his skin. His legs were a pattern of red wounds and deep bruises. His wrists, ankles, and throat were all red and raw. Rukia stared at him in somewhat shock then back at Ukitake. To be honest, she’d avoided even mentioning Ichigo’s name since the day he was locked away. She’d remembered something about Captain Kurotsuchi doing some research on him…

“But he…he killed you!” Rukia gasped as her eyes went to Ukitake’s face on the other side of the barrier.

Ukitake walked over to Ichigo and knelt down, pulling his face up to him. His eyes wouldn’t focus, seemingly moving at every angle rapidly.

“I’m so sorry, Ichigo, so sorry,” he whispered.

Ichigo moved suddenly, leaping over and knocking Ukitake on his back. He crawled over him and sat across his thighs and planted his hands on Ukitake’s shoulders. He looked down into Ukitake’s face and giggled. Blood dripped from his mouth, both from Grimmjow’s hand and where his lip had split. “You’re dead,” he said quietly, but loud enough that everyone in the utter silence that surrounded him could hear. “You’re not here, you can’t be here,” he paused and looked away from him, looking around at all the captains around the outside of the barrier. His voice changed. “I didn’t though, I didn’t kill you, I know I didn’t…they told me I did…left me alone…and I couldn’t…couldn’t tell the I did…to make it stop, just to make the pain stop, I tried to tell them I killed you!” he said in a more normal voice. Another giggle escaped him. “But I did! I had to kill you, they said I did so I did, right?” the higher pitched voice this time. “Stop, stop, I can’t…I didn’t…I wouldn’t…you’re not dead…you aren’t!” he gasped and suddenly dropped down on top of him and clutched Ukitake to his chest. He wrapped his arms tightly around his neck and Ukitake put his around Ichigo’s back.

“Sorry, sorry, I love you all but I’m gonna kill you all,” he said as he suddenly giggled and bit Ukitake’s shoulder where it met his neck. Blood exploded out from the bite and started running down to the ground.

Ukitake didn’t do anything other than sit up and hold him to his chest as he rocked him. Ichigo held onto the flesh of his shoulder, pulling back now and then as if to rip the flesh out. No one outside the barrier moved as Ukitake just held him there. It wasn’t like they could get through the barrier anyway. Ichigo suddenly leaned back, letting go, and stared at the blood running down Ukitake’s white Haori. Blood dripped down his chest from his mouth. He reached out and ran his finger over the wound and giggled again. Then he leaned up and licked it until it stopped bleeding profusely. Ukitake just stared at him with a look of deep sadness.

“Pretty,” he whispered. “Wanna give you pretty, you gave me pretty, pretty…” he muttered and put his hand to his own lips and ripped his thumb off at the joint roughly with his teeth. He growled and held the hand up over his head, watching his own blood pour out of the wound. It ran down and splattered over his head and down onto Ukitake’s lap.

“Pretty for you, pretty, pretty for the one I did and didn’t kill…” he muttered. “Dripping down, pretty like the rain…glistening…dripping…sparkling…”

Ukitake put a hand up on his face. “Oh, Ichigo, I am so sorry,” he whispered as suddenly Ichigo was hefted up off Ukitake’s lap by a six armed Nnoitra.

“Come on, ain’t got all day for this shit, let’s get the crazy bastard back to Aizen-sama…” he said as he easily held onto the writhing form. “Glad he ain’t got his power right now, and glad I used my resurrection, bastard’s stronger than he looks. Shit, when he said he was crazy, he wasn’t kidding,” he added as the garganta opened. He disappeared inside with only the mad laughter following him.

Rukia stared in shock, along with everyone who stood around the area. “Don’t worry, Captain Whitey here can fill you in. But you people…you do this to yer friend, can’t imagine what you’d do to an enemy,” Grimmjow said as he walked into the opening. Tier sighed and reached behind her and tossed Jūshirō’s twin Zanpakutō at him, leaving as the others followed her.

Ukitake picked up the swords and swiped them through the barrier, shattering it. Aizen had said the barrier would only be broken by his swords. That was the intent. He looked up and around at the others, shaking his head.

“You didn’t think, did you?” he whispered. “After everything Ichigo did, everything he was, you just turned on him. “I watched it all, Aizen made me watch the surveillance,” he said quietly. “I didn’t see what happened after Mayuri took him, though, but Aizen knew. It was always about Ichigo, from the moment he faced him on the hill. From that moment,” he said softly. “He wanted him. He wanted his power to get the King’s Key, to destroy us. Now, he has him, and the hogyuku. All Ichigo has to do is accept Aizen’s, side with him, and he’ll have everything he needs to destroy Soul Society for good.”

“He won’t side with him…” Rukia whispered.

Ukitake looked at her. “After ten years? After you all turned on him? Rukia, don’t be naïve. I saw what happened at the mockery of a trial you held. I saw what you all said.” He looked around and shook his head at all of them. “How could you? I told Sōsuke that it wouldn’t work. I told him that you would give him a trial. I told him you would realize what was happening. I told him you wouldn’t do exactly what you did. I was wrong, so wrong, and I can’t believe that I have to say this, but Sōsuke Aizen was right,” he whispered and turned, leaving them all behind him.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

[Year 11, Month 1]

“Fuck!” Grimmjow yelped again as he tried to catch the flying Shinigami as he jumped over him and bounced back from the wall. “I thought you said that that shit would calm him down, not jack him up!” he yelled, grabbing Ichigo’s ankle and slamming him down into the floor this time. Ichigo started laughing manically and tried to pull away but he was laughing too hard.  “He’s worse than he was!” Grimmjow yelled as he managed to wrangle Ichigo to standing, or at least not using everything and everyone as a springboard.

“Sorry!” Szayelaporro said with a sigh. “I don’t know why it had the opposite effect…it was supposed to heal him and put him to sleep!” he muttered.

“Because he’s completely out of control of himself. We have to get him at least somewhat under control so we can reverse some of the damage Kurotsuchi did…” Aizen said as he came into the cell where Ichigo was wrapped around Grimmjow’s back this time, trying to bite the back of his neck while he had both hands buried in his blue hair.

Aizen reached up and yanked Ichigo off Grimmjow’s back by his hair. He hit the ground and tried to fight to get loose. Aizen grabbed him by the chin and held to the back of his head, bringing him in front of him eye to eye. He started laughing at him, arms scrabbling to get Aizen’s hands off his head.

“Stop.” He said and to his surprise Ichigo stopped and stared at him with suddenly focused eyes. Aizen smiled and let his reiatsu pressure him, hoping that it would settle him down somewhat. “Good. You are in there and realize where you are, huh?”

Ichigo looked to be trying to focus his eyes. “You…you…have…you aren’t…there…”

“Good, good, you’re thinking a little. No, I’m not in the maggot’s nest. I made everyone think I was. Remember my Zanpakutō, Ichigo? What it does? Perfect hypnosis,” he said and pulled Ichigo toward a bed that they’d put into the cell for him.

Ichigo moved with him, slowly, eyes rolling randomly now and again. “They drove you mad, didn’t they?” he said with a smile. “Your friends, huh? They turned on you so easily. It wouldn’t have been hard to prove your innocence, I left enough clues, but they didn’t look, did they? You knew what the clues were and you tried to tell them, didn’t you?”

Ichigo’s eyes clarified for a moment. “They left me alone…” he said. “All alone for so long…”

“Yeah, they did. Then they gave you to Kurotsuchi, didn’t they?” he said as he sat down, pulling Ichigo to sit next to him. He kept his hands locked on his head and chin.

Ichigo’s eyes went wide, the slight manic glint appearing. “So much pain…the blood…raining…it’s raining…so pretty…” he whispered. “I couldn’t think…Shiro is so crazy…Zan is so boring…then there I am in the middle of all this blood…” he said a smile creeping to his lips.

“Ah, shhh, stop,” Aizen said and Ichigo’s eyes locked on his again. “I saved you.”

Ichigo looked at him. “You saved me,” he repeated.

“I saved you from them. They aren’t your friends, are they?” he said with a softness to his voice that Grimmjow had never heard before.

“You saved me from them.” He breathed deeply and stifled a laugh. “They aren’t my friends.”

“Yes, that’s it, Ichigo. I’m your friend, remember? So are the Espada. We’re going to help you,” he said slowly again. Grimmjow realized he could feel the rise in reiatsu around them. He realized that Aizen was using some sort of kido as he spoke to him.

“Yeah,” he said as his breathing slowed down and his eyes began to flutter.

“Ichigo, there’s more than one of you there, right?” he said slowly. “You said you, Shiro, and Zan, right?”

“Yeah,” he said starting to blink a bit. “Shiro…says that he wants…to fight…Zan says that we need to rest…I don’t know where I am anymore…” he said.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m going to take care of you now,” Aizen said and let go of him. Ichigo teetered and stared at him. “Come here,” Aizen said and Grimmjow felt the heavy reiatsu again.

Ichigo leaned forward, falling into Aizen and breathing heavily against his shoulder. “There,” Aizen said, threading fingers through his long hair as much as he could with it so matted and dirty. “See, I’ll fix it,” he muttered.

Aizen smiled. He hadn’t expected them to break the boy so thoroughly, but it would work in his advantage. It would be easier to mold him and get him to be who he wanted him to be. Of course, the extremely high level of insanity was going to be difficult to deal with in the long run. He hadn’t counted on that little tidbit. Still, as Grimmjow and Szayelaporro left, he almost didn’t want to get up. He shook it off, putting him down, the sleeping kido finally taking full effect. He wondered how long it would take to undo ten years of damage…it wouldn’t matter how long it took, though. He had forever, after all.

* * *

 


	2. When They Realize the Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspiration music for this chapter: Monster by Skillet

[Year 11, Month 1]

The first thing that happened in Soul Society was utter and complete chaos. The Maggot’s Nest was opened and they found that Sōsuke Aizen was not there. There was a very unfortunate Arrancar that had died at some point during the confinement. It seemed that with the cube that Grimmjow broke in the Seireitei, all illusions were shattered, and even their memories reflected the truth now. Those that had been there when Aizen was “defeated” realized what had been illusion and what had not been. They remembered clearly him escaping, and that the Arrancar that they believed dead had not been. Of course, considering that there had only one person who had actually witnessed the illusion of Ichigo’s killing of Ukitake, no one was hit as hard as Rukia. The others had seen the recording, but of course the recording reflected Rukia’s memory. It was not an illusion in itself. Now that Rukia knew it had been an illusion, a new extraction of her memory had been made. This one reflected the truth.

Rukia sat in the fourth staring straight ahead as Renji came running into the room with a look of shock and amazement.

“What happened? They said that Ukitake-Taichou was alive!” he said. “You watched him die, Rukia. How did this happen?”

Rukia looked up at him. “It…it was an illusion. What I saw…I see it clear as day now, Renji,” she said hollowly.

Rukia had witnessed Ukitake “death” frozen in place behind the trees in terror as she watched her best friend become a monster. Renji knelt down and looked at her. A fear had started to rise in his chest slowly at her words.

“What was an illusion?” he asked.

Rukia pulled a disk that she’d had in her possession for ten years now. Every time she started to feel like Ichigo might have been innocent, she would watch the recording that had been taken of her memory that day. Kurotsuchi had used a special kido to copy the memory. Renji, of course, knew what it was. He’d watched it so many times when Rukia had come to him sobbing. She held it out and shook her head.

“This is an illusion,” she whispered and sighed. She put a second down by the first. “This is the truth that Kurotsuchi just copied from my memory.

The disk flickered and they saw the koi pond. But this time, it wasn’t Ichigo that walked up behind Ukitake; it was the Cuarta Espada, Ulquiorra. He used a motion that looked similar to stabbing Ukitake, but instead it wrapped a coil of kido around the captain. Ukitake arched back and Ulquiorra pulled him against his chest and waited a second before he turned and walked away with the unconscious captain, right past Rukia’s position.

Renji stared in disbelief. “But…but…”

“We were so blinded by it, Renji. Aizen isn’t in the Maggot’s Nest, he never was. He used the perfect hypnosis on us again. We saw Ichigo. He never left the World of the Living, Renji,” she said as tears started falling from her eyes. “How could he? He didn’t have the ability to open a senkaimon. He couldn’t open a garganta. He never left, Renji. Ukitake-taichou told me Aizen had left the clues we needed to see that he was innocent. And he did Renji, he did. Ichigo couldn’t get to Soul Society alone. That was the first clue.”

“We…we though he had new powers though, after the Fullbringer thing, that’s…that’s what we decided in the meeting…that there was irrefutable proof that he…he…” Renji stopped and looked at her.

“Then, all we had to do was realize that he hadn’t left his human body. All we had to do was check the reiatsu levels, Renji. We would have known if he’d used any powers. Then, the reiatsu I felt that day, it was hollow. Ichigo’s reiatsu, even when he was Vizard, it was never hollow. I should have known it couldn’t be both hollow and Ichigo’s at the same time. He couldn’t contain his reiatsu, Renji. Ever. We had everything we needed to realize we were wrong, Renji. Everything. And we ignored it. We turned on him in one moment. The second I saw it, I never doubted it. How…how could I do that to him? After everything he did for me? After he risked everything?”

Renji felt the knot in his stomach worse now. “What…where is he? We have to fix this. We can fix, it right? It isn’t like he’s dead, Rukia. We can fix it.” Even to his ears, though, Renji’s words rang hollow.

Rukia shook her head, pulling another disk from a pocket and handing it to Renji. “I had Kurotsuchi-Taichou do the same thing for what happened today. I can’t…I can’t watch it again.”

Renji took it and activated and watched the incident from earlier. He had been in the World of the Living at the time and hadn’t seen it in person. He’d been summoned back immediately. He was nearly sick when Rukia’s eyes settled on the person they’d wronged more than anyone in all three worlds. He watched to the end when Ukitake’s words hit him harder than expected. How could you? He clicked it off and looked at her.

“What…what did they do to him?” he said quietly. “That…that wasn’t…what did they do?”

Rukia looked at him. “We didn’t care, remember? We told him we didn’t care. All of us. We told him and he pleaded with us, begged us. How scared do you think he was, Renji? How hurt? All alone for so very long. We all just…just…the things we said to him, Renji, and he still, even when the five years passed, he wouldn’t admit to doing something he knew he didn’t do. Five years, Renji. He spent five years completely alone in that tower watching life move past him outside.” Rukia’s tears were heavier now. “Then when they said that Kurotsuchi had taken him to find out what had gone wrong, we didn’t ask questions. He was there five years, Renji. And even then, he wouldn’t admit to something he knew he didn’t do. Even when his mind was so far gone he could barely tell what was real and not. We didn’t ask what they were doing. We went about our lives as Kurotsuchi-taichou…as he did worse to him than anything we can fathom. And we did nothing. _We didn’t care_.”

Renji remembered now vividly telling Ichigo that he’d gladly kill him but he wouldn’t because that was too good for him. “D-does his father know?” Renji whispered.

Rukia shook her head. “No, the captains are meeting, to decide how to proceed,” she said, wiping her eyes. Renji realized that the captain’s haori was on the ground beside her now. He had a feeling she wouldn’t pick it up again. He could see that there was blood staining the hem.

Renji sat on the bench beside her in the fourth division and put an arm about her shoulders. “We’ll fix this,” he said, but he didn’t believe it entirely. He’d told Ichigo there was no forgiveness for what he’d done. It turned out that it was them that there was no forgiveness for.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

[Year 11, Month 1]

“I did exactly what I was told to do!” Kurotsuchi said as the other captains stared at him. “It was unanimous! You all agreed, well, except for Zaraki of course. And Ukitake wasn’t present,” he said, glaring at the newly returned captain. “You agreed that if he did not admit to his crime after five years, that we needed to find out why the hollowification had corrupted him. You were the one that said that Ichigo Kurosaki, as a human, couldn’t perform such an act, Kuchiki. You were the one that told me it had to be the hollow controlling him without his knowledge.” Kurotsuchi glared over at Kyōraku. “And you, Kyōraku, you thought five years alone would encourage him to reveal the truth if he had knowledge of it. When it didn’t, you agreed with Kuchiki that we had to figure out why he had done it. You both wanted me to find out why he had done this. I did nothing but what you wanted.”

Ukitake stood at the end of the room, having neither been healed nor changed. Blood still stained his haori, both his own and Ichigo’s. He looked at Kurotsuchi.

“What were you trying to do that drove him completely mad?” he asked finally.

“I tried to separate the hollow, of course. I tried to remove it; I wanted it to be a viable sample, so I wanted to keep it and him alive. That was all I was required to do by the decree of the Gotei 13,” he said as he glared around the room at them all. “I don’t know what exactly drove him mad. He was locked up for five years alone, as well. Don’t put this all on my actions! He was already losing his mind when I got hold of him.”

“You’re saying you did nothing else?” Ukitake said, pulling one of the recording disks and holding it up to project the cell from some time in the last five years.

“What do you think? Can he tolerate any more of the accelerant without dying?” came Kurotsuchi’s voice.

Inside the cell, Ichigo was sitting in the corner rocking back and forth, eyes flickering around the room. He was breathing heavily and a stead drip of bloody saliva ran down from both sides of his mouth and he would giggle now and then.

“Sir, I don’t think that is really a good idea,” Akon’s voice from nearby. “The last dose left him nearly bashing his head in after the effects hit fully. We had to sedate him. Twice.”

“Try it again. This time, see how long it takes him to pass out. It hasn’t yielded good enough results for my liking. We may have to scrap this series and try the next one,” Kurotsuchi said with a sigh.

“Sir, are you sure?” Akon’s voice was slightly worried. “The next series is the one that we thought might cause the fracturing.”

“Proceed with the last round of this series, and then begin the next in the morning.”

The image faded. “What exactly was that supposed to be?” Ukitake said quietly.

“I had to try various compounds to separate the soul fragments,” he said with a sigh. “It was nothing beyond the instructions I was given. I had to try and separate the hollow from the human and Shinigami.”

“You said it was impossible over a year ago, according to your own records. If that was so, why did you continue on a futile attempt to separate them?” Ukitake said finally. “So what have you done for the last year?”

Kurotsuchi looked at him, unsure how to answer that. “I…I continued trying, of course.”

“You knew it was impossible. The hollow and Ichigo are one soul in the same because that hollow is his Zanpakutō and you know it. You were doing something else.”

The head captain looked at him after he didn’t answer. “Kurotsuchi-Taichou, I believe you will answer Ukitake-Taichou’s questioning.”

Kurotsuchi sighed. “I wanted to test the hollowification to see how deeply it ran. With his powers sealed, I was able to get a reading on it without fearing him turning into a transformed visage. So I tested it.”

Ukitake looked at him. Unlike the others, he had actually pulled all the files from Kurotsuchi’s “tests” and found out what he’d done. “You flooded him with pheromones, hormones, and pure hollow reiatsu, Kurotsuchi. What were you trying to trigger?”

“I don’t know!” he growled at him. “I was experimenting! I wanted to see how hollow he’d become! The results were inconclusive, but enlightening.”

Ukitake shook his head. “You activated hollow drives and let him suffer with them, unable to answer them, and unable to make them go away.”

“Only three,” Kurotsuchi said with a sigh. “And I let him answer all of them, after a fashion.”

“Answer clearly, Kurotsuchi-Taichou,” the head captain said with a booming voice.

“Consumption, destruction, and procreation,” he said with a narrowed glance at Ukitake.

“What?” Byakuya said, looking at him. “Why would you do such a thing?”

Kurotsuchi smiled. “I found out that a human can consume souls with enough influence from hollow reiatsu. Don’t worry, it was only other small hollows I gave him,” he muttered. “I employed some of the stronger hollows to see his destructive capabilities once activated. They were quite impressive, and I only had one that I had to destroy before Kurosaki killed it.”

It was Tōshirō who looked at the researcher now. “Consumption and Destruction. What about this procreation?” he said with a glance at Ukitake.

“I also wanted to examine the completely useless procreation drive the hollows have and found that they carry a need to create ‘life’ in a way. They have hollows that are the submissive carriers of young, betas I think is the word, and they have the hollows that are dominant and protect the submissive one and the young, alphas is the word that fits best. The young are only some of the souls each of the hollow carries. Gender is of no consequence as it is a matter of one reiatsu overpowering another. Of course, I couldn’t complete that experiment because Kurosaki lacked extra souls to combine with the hollows I put with him,” he muttered with a sigh. “Otherwise, I would have gotten a chance to witness hollow birthing.”

“You what?” Ukitake said and stared at him. “You…tried to mate him with a hollow?”

“Of course, how else would I find out? It’s impossible to encourage hollows to mate once captured, but Kurosaki could incite the drive in others once I activated his own, with a few serums, of course. There were some interesting problems, of course. His hybrid physiology presented me with the chance to alter things that are impossible to alter in pure hollows, I had more control over the effects,” he said with a shrug. “Unfortunately, none of the hollows I was able to capture for the experiment yielded positive results. It was interesting, though; he tended to kill most of them with his bare hands, which was impressive in itself since Kurosaki’s power was sealed for the most part. In the end, to get the process to take, he had to be sedated, otherwise he would have destroyed them all. I even had to bolster some of the hollows in strength to be able to overpower his reiatsu. Fascinating, considering I believed it to be sealed. It reacted to the mating attempts, however. But there were seven successful attempts, and five partially successful ones. The other seventeen were failures for the most part.”

Ukitake shook his head and looked around the room. “Him, I understand,” he said, pointing to Kurotsuchi. “I expected it from him. But the rest of you. How did you even think that it was possible for Ichigo Kurosaki to murder someone?”

“Rukia witnessed it,” Kyōraku said softly, avoiding his oldest and dearest friend’s gaze. He had never seen Ukitake this angry in all the time they had known each other. “The memory was recorded intact and we had no reason to doubt her for what she saw.”

“I’m disgusted that you would look no further than your own eyes,” he said. “Tell me! How did he get to Soul Society?” Ukitake asked and looked around. “How? Urahara or one of us have had to come and get him to cross the Dangai.” When no one answered. “And tell me exactly how he managed to get into and out of Soul Society with no one sensing him? He could never contain his spiritual energy at all! He has always lacked control of that font of seemingly never ending reiatsu that he was born with.” Silence met the captain again. “Then, tell me if you tested his reiatsu to see if he’d even exited his human body?” Nothing was spoken again. “The simplest of things and you would have known something was wrong!”

Ukitake turned away and took a deep breath and then turned back. “And now look what you have allowed to happen. Perhaps one of the brightest souls I’ve ever encountered…and look what you did to him. I will go to the World of the Living myself to inform Isshin Shiba. He should hear it from someone who regrets what has happened as much as he soon will.”

Ukitake turned and left the meeting, nearly running into Rukia as she came running to him. “Taichou, are you going to the World of the Living?” she asked with still teary eyes. Ukitake stopped and nodded. “I…I need to go. I need…I need to tell them myself.”

Ukitake didn’t say anything, and for Rukia it was almost worse than if he had yelled and screamed at her. She lowered her head and followed him as they left. Ukitake stepped out of the gate and went to Urahara’s with Rukia following behind him. He didn’t pause, he didn’t even waste a second along the way. He never tried to say anything to her, and she didn’t expect him to. She couldn’t even meet her captain’s eyes. The door opened almost before Ukitake got to the step.

“Ukitake-san,” Urahara said as he locked eyes with him.

Ukitake saw that Urahara knew already what must have happened. Urahara would have defended Ichigo had he been in Soul Society. Ukitake had an idea that Urahara and Shihōin had not been informed before Ichigo’s conviction. After what had happened with the Vizard, Ukitake doubted that Urahara would let Soul Society harm another.

“Come in. Wait in the tea room. I’ll summon the others,” he said and disappeared out the door.

Urahara had known something was off when he’d been told what had happened. By the time he’d heard, though, Ichigo had been locked away, and this time, there was no getting in to get him out. His father wouldn’t help, and neither would his human friends. Even the Quincy wouldn’t cross the Shinigami to help him. Urahara knew that there was more to things than what everyone believed, but no one would listen to him. His words fell on deaf ears, and because Soul Society knew about Urahara’s involvement before, they would stop him. He knew that Ichigo would never let the hollow take over and destroy anyone, least of all Ukitake.

Urahara had wanted to help him, but no one would listen. Isshin turned his back on his own son, and for the last ten years refused to acknowledge he even had a son any longer. His son was dead. Kon had been left in the stuffed lion’s body, and he now lived in Yuzu’s home as her daughter’s favorite toy. Kon had come to accept this, but sometimes he turned up on Urahara’s doorstep begging for a Gigai, just for a little while.

The worst part, though, was that Ichigo’s human form had been cremated and interred with the excuse that he had suffered a sudden heart attack from some congenital malformation that had gone undetected. All his school friends had come to the memorial as Urahara and Shihōin had stood in the distance and watched as Isshin talked about his son. His son, that was very much still alive, after a fashion. He had no human body, however. And Urahara wasn’t sure that a Gigai would ever work for him. His human side was dead, for good this time.

Tatsuki and Karin had come to him asking if it was true. Urahara said he couldn’t speak on what had happened to Ichigo because he didn’t know. He honestly had not known what was happening; he knew he didn’t believe what he’d been told.

He dropped to the ground in front of the clinic and knocked. Isshin opened the door and stared.

“My shoten, immediately,” he said and was gone without waiting for an answer. He repeated the same thing with the others. He included Karin and Tatsuki in the number he called. They deserved to know what had happened to Ichigo. They deserved to know why he was gone from their lives so suddenly.

Urahara waited sitting in the front of the store until all had gathered impatiently.

“What is happening, Kisuke?” Isshin said with a look at him. “This better not be some ridiculous attempt to convince me of…”

“It isn’t my attempt,” Urahara said and sighed. “Come. There’s someone here you need to talk to.”

When they came into the tearoom, they only saw Rukia sitting with her head bowed at first. Isshin narrowed his eyes at her. “Rukia, what is…?”

“Isshin,” came a voice that shocked everyone in the room from the window. Tatsuki and Karin didn’t know Ukitake very well, but they recalled hearing about him from Rukia.

“Jūshirō?” Isshin gasped as Ukitake turned and looked at those gathered, his bloody Haori shocking them even more than his sudden appearance.

Orihime moved to use her shield but Ukitake gestured and broke it. “No. I won’t be healed of this. It will scar me and I will remember how badly everyone has erred and the terrible things that were done in my memory. I will bear it for the rest of my days,” he said and pulled down the collar where it was easy to see a deep bite wound from humanoid teeth that still seeped blood. It almost looked like a chunk of flesh was nearly pulled away. “I’ll remember what was done with no regard for what I would have wished.”

It was easy to tell that all the blood didn’t come from his wound. The lower half of his haori was drenched from another source. He let go of the fabric and looked out the window again.

“How are you alive?” Isshin said with eyes wide. “You…we saw you die…”

“You saw what you were meant to see, and left with every clue to the otherwise, you only believed your eyes,” he said. “I’m most disappointed in you, Isshin Shiba. I had thought better of the man that would give everything up to save the Quincy Masaki Kurosaki. Yet you would fail to do anything to save her child.”

Uryū glanced at him and back to Ukitake. “What…what’s happened?”

“What’s happened?” Ukitake said and looked them over. “You turned on the one person who wouldn’t betray any of you no matter what. You betrayed him and left him with no care if he lived or died. You told him it would be better if he died.”

“I don’t understand?” Isshin said.

“Kyōka Suigetsu.”

Isshin stared at him. “Aizen’s Zanpakutō? He’s in the maggot’s nest. He was captured.”

“No, he never was. I’ve spent the last ten years in Las Noches as a _guest_ while he waited until Soul Society tired of torturing Ichigo Kurosaki and planned to execute him. Then, he moved, taking Ichigo and returning me. To his incredible glee, Ichigo’s mind is shattered completely. After Kurotsuchi had five years to tear him apart and break him…there isn’t much left. But it is enough for Sōsuke to get to his power easily once he shows him the kindness that none of you did,” Ukitake said with a deep sigh. “He plans to try and use him, and all that power that we were so afraid of, against us. The King’s Key. The Soul King. He’ll destroy us.”

The silence behind him as he stared out the window told him all he needed to know. “Show them, Rukia.”

Rukia nodded and placed the disk on the table, the true memory. They’d all seen the other one. “The perfect hypnosis is broken. This is the truth,” she whispered as she let the recording of the day Ukitake “died” play.

No one said anything for a long time. They simply stare at what they had just seen and they couldn’t even move.

“The other one, Rukia, from today,” Ukitake said after a while to break the silence.

“I can’t…I can’t watch…” Rukia said as she placed the second disk down.

“The other one.”

Rukia nodded and allowed it to play, her eyes drawn to what she’d been there for every torturous second of. Orihime was the first to break, dropping to her knees and sobbing loudly behind her hands. Tatsuki and Karin weren’t far behind, however, they did not have the crushing amount of guilt that came with having stood face to face with him and told him he was a monster.

Chad appeared to stare impassively at first, but his eyes were damp. How could he have ever believed Ichigo could be corrupted? How could he have possibly not believed him when he pleaded with them?

Uryū dropped to his knees beside the girls and had a very hollow look on his face. “Ichigo…” he whispered and recalled his threat to put an arrow through his forehead. As he watched Ichigo completely come unraveled and scream and laugh, he believed that it would have been a great kindness to him if he had.

“No…no…my son…” Isshin said finally as tears began to fall from his eyes. “What have I done…how could I believe that he would…”

He too fell to his knees, and Karin hugged him tightly as they held to each other. Karin wanted to blame her father, in fact, she hadn’t spoken it, but she did. Now, though, she was in too much pain to know that her brother had suffered for ten years for something he hadn’t done.

Orihime and Tatsuki clung together, but Orihime remembered her words. _You’ll get what you deserve._ “Oh my…Kurosaki-kun…” she whispered. “No…I can fix it, can’t I? Can I…” she whispered, but she didn’t know. She could reject wounds. His mind? She had no idea if she could heal such a thing. She felt that the answer would she could not. The wounds weren’t physical.

“What…what can we do?” Tatsuki said from where she held the sobbing Orihime after the recording ended. She felt a surge of anger. “Why would you let this happen?” she said and looked around at them before she stood up suddenly. “How…how could you do this to him?”

No one had any answers for her as she stared through tears at those in the room; those that had betrayed her friend. She, at least, had only known because of Urahara. She was horrified at what the others had done.

Ukitake sighed and turned to look at them. “I’m not sure what we’re to do. But we can’t let Aizen keep him. He’s completely mad, and I don’t think there’s anything left to save, so we’re going to be left with few options. If he can be retrieved, he needs to be kept locked away, or he needs to be mercifully put out of his misery. There’s a chance we can help him,” he said, glancing at Urahara and Orihime. “I wouldn’t count on it, however. Hope that we can help him, but prepare for the fact that you have all sentenced an innocent to death.”

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

[Year 11, Month 2]

“What do you plan on doing?” Starrk said as he watched the monitor on the cell he’d placed Ichigo in.

Aizen shook his head. “I’m unsure. Octavo is working on a few things to try and repair some of the damage, but it is slow going.”

He sighed and pushed an intercom button. “Grimmjow, intervene.”

Grimmjow, sitting outside the cell that Ichigo was in sighed. This was the fifth time today. He opened the door to see he was sitting on the floor, this time it looked like he was trying to gnaw off one of his toes and giggling. Grimmjow sighed, closing the door, and he picked him up under his arms. He shrieked and turned and tried to claw Grimmjow’s face off. “Dammit, why can’t they cut your fucking fingernails!” he growled as he wrestled the struggling form down to the bed, pinning his arms on his back and sitting on his calves while he screamed random sounding words at him.

Grimmjow rubbed his forehead and sighed as he sat there until he stopped struggling as much and settled into random bouts of laughter.

“Stop, Shiro, they get mad about it…” he said finally, laughing again. “They don’t like it when we have fun!”

“If by fun, you mean tearing parts of your body off, no, that’s not good,” Grimmjow said. This was a conversation they’d had at least three times today alone.

“But the blood is so pretty…” he breathed out heavily. “Red and dripping and beautiful…”

“Yeah, yeah. Well, ripping pieces of yourself off is not gonna work anymore. It took nearly three hours for Szayelaporro to fix your fucking thumb when we dragged your ass here. Can you not feel pain anymore or something?” he asked finally.

“Pain?” Ichigo’s voice had shifted out of the strange high pitched one that usually accompanied bouts of him trying to tear off his fingers and toes or trying to dig his nails into himself.

“Yeah, pain. You feel pain, right?” Grimmjow said, relaxing his hold and standing up to let Ichigo roll over and flop on his back.

“I remember pain,” he said finally. “So much…I think it broke my sanity.”

“I think so, you’re fucking nutty as hell,” he muttered as he put a hand on Ichigo’s calf. He laid there and stared at the ceiling, eyes stilling for a short time.

“Only so much, you know, before you can’t think, and the world turns different colors…and it’s so pretty you know, when the world changes and the whites turn black, and the things all invert….” He muttered.

Grimmjow looked at him. This was the most lucid he’d been in the month they’d been trying to get him to some sort of not crazy as fuck. Granted, Grimmjow wouldn’t necessarily call the things he was saying _not_ crazy. Suddenly he looked at Grimmjow.

“I didn’t do it. I know I didn’t. They said I did. I didn’t though.”

Grimmjow nodded. “I know you didn’t,” he said and he saw the strangest look cross Ichigo’s face.

Ichigo sat up and threw his arms around his neck and sobbed suddenly. “Thank you,” he said as he clung to him. Grimmjow couldn’t help it; he put his arms around him and held him there. After a few minutes, Grimmjow realized he’d passed out. He put him back down on the bed and brushed strands of his hair off his head.

After a month, most of the bruising and the worst of the physical damage had been healed. What worried Szayelaporro were the results of some of the testing for what Kurotsuchi had done. Now that he had an idea what had happened, he didn’t want to tell Aizen. Grimmjow sighed and knew that Szayel had to do something. Without knowing everything, Aizen was never going to get the crazy fucker anywhere near useful. He went out and sat down outside the room again. This was incredibly fucked up; he thought to himself as he leaned back in the chair and fell asleep himself.

Aizen looked up as Szayelaporro came in and sat down, pushing a file folder over the conference table to him. “Everything’s in there, Aizen-sama,” he said and nodded.

Aizen opened it and looked over the results of all the tests that they’d done this month. He frowned. “What is this? He activated consumption, destruction, and procreation hollow instincts?”

“That is what I got from when Aaroniero was in the twelfth but also confirmed it with my own tests,” he said with a sigh.

“So they called me unethical,” Aizen muttered. “He tried to…” He blinked. “No wonder he’s lost his mind,” he muttered as he scanned everything. He put the file down. “Alright, well, we need to proceed forward. I’m going to start integrating him into Las Noches.”

Szayelaporro looked at him surprised. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? He…I mean, he’s still…”

“We need to get him out of the room by himself. If I’m going to turn this into my favor, and I will, I need him to be comfortable and even happy here. I will shower him with the affection that he has lacked, and I will comfort him. He’ll choose to stay with me because of it. And when he’s standing beside me by choice, the hogyuku will do what I desire. It will make him my Cero Espada,” Aizen said with a smile. “And unlike Yammy, his power will not be lessened in non-released form.”

Aizen got up and made his way to the cell. He kicked Grimmjow’s chair lightly to wake him up and he looked at him. Aizen went in and sat down beside Ichigo on the bed and pulled his face toward him.

“Ichigo, it’s Sōsuke,” he said softly.

Ichigo’s eyes fluttered and he locked eyes with him. “Wha…was sleep…” he muttered.

“Come, it is time for you to leave this room. You aren’t my prisoner, my dear,” he said with a smile.

Ichigo struggled to his feet and looked at Aizen unsteadily. Aizen stood and brushed a hand over his head. “Come, you are filthy. Let’s bathe you and see if we can’t tame these wild locks,” he said gently. Ichigo just nodded, almost entranced by Aizen’s words.

Aizen took his hand, still somewhat bloody from his attempts to disembowel himself earlier in the day, and led him through the white corridors to a large bath. Grimmjow came along. For some reason, Aizen had decided to make Grimmjow one of his keepers. Ulquiorra was the other one, with Nnoitra filling in as necessary. Honestly, Aizen’s intention was to integrate Ichigo’s presence into the Espada so that when the time came, he joined them to fight side by side without a second thought of it. However, things were evolving in other ways, he was noticing.

Aizen took him into the large bath and smiled at Ichigo’s wild stare. He reached forward and untied the dirty and tattered yukata. They’d managed to change his clothes once while he was asleep, but hadn’t reacted well to anyone trying to mess with his hair or put him in a bath. For a second, he seemed to clear his head and he realized what Aizen was doing and he grabbed his hands and shook his head.

“Ichigo, you need to bathe,” Aizen said and then smiled. “Here, will you go in the bath if I join you? If I show you it is safe?”

Ichigo didn’t answer more than a slight giggle that crawled up his throat suddenly. He watched as Aizen removed his clothes and put them on the counter. He looked at Ichigo. “Now you?”

Ichigo just stood there, staring at the place Aizen had put his clothes, so Aizen moved and pulled off the yukata and let it fall. He put his hand on Ichigo’s arm and steered him to the sunken tub. He stepped in first and Ichigo followed him, gasping when the water touched him.

“Come now,” Aizen encouraged as he got him into the water.

He was about waist deep in the large tub and Aizen nodded, pleased. “There, doesn’t it feel nice?”

Ichigo nodded and looked around franticly, hands going to his chest and twisting together. Aizen picked up the soap and started in on him. Ichigo just stood blankly for most the washing of his chest and arms. Aizen picked up a cup and poured the warm water over him and smirked. He almost purred at the attention, it seemed. Aizen put a hand on his forehead and one under his back as he tipped him back to wet his hair. Ichigo surprisingly went with it easily and let Aizen move him to the side to sit on one of the submerged seats. He went to work on the matted mess of Ichigo’s hair. He grimaced despite himself at the state it was in. After nearly two hours, Aizen had finally gotten his hair tamed. Now, without the matting, it fell down his back well past his waist. Aizen contemplated cutting it but then thought, no. That was the old version of Ichigo. He needed this version of Ichigo to be different than the one Soul Society had tortured.

“Now, doesn’t that feel better?” Aizen said as he looked down into his eyes. They were hooded and he looked almost blissed out.

“I like the warmth,” Ichigo said and his hands began moving under the surface of the water slowly. “It’s pretty, pretty,” he whispered as he picked up his hand and watched the sparkling water drip from his hand. “Pretty drops…” he said as he repeated the action.

Aizen had an idea. He moved in front of Ichigo and put both hands on his shoulders. “Ichigo, if you are able to stop making yourself bleed, I’ll bring you into here anytime you want.”

Ichigo looked at him for a long moment. “I like this place. Pretty…like blood…”

“Yes, and I will come here anytime you wish with you. But only if you stop cutting your skin and biting at your hands and feet.”

Ichigo nodded. “Okay, I like it here,” he said and smiled for a long moment. “I’ll try.”

“Why do you try to take off your fingers and toes, Ichigo? Why do you try to hurt yourself?” Aizen asked, moving his hands from Ichigo’s shoulders to rest on the outside of his arms.

He looked at him. “We’re bored sometimes, and if I tear myself, someone comes to fix it,” he whispered and looked at Aizen with clarity to his eyes for a moment. “I’m so alone,” he said quietly.

Aizen sighed and nodded. He moved forward and pulled him to his chest. “You aren’t alone, Ichigo. I’ll make sure you’re never alone again. I told you I’ll take care of you and try to fix this,” he said and for some reason, the words that were meant to make Ichigo become pliant made his heart ache a little.

Aizen got him out of the sunken tub, dried him off, and dressed him in a nice, clean and white yukata. He still looked gaunt and starved, but he imagined they hadn’t done much for the soul hunger, and he supposed that having his power sealed meant hunger hadn’t bothered him too often. Aizen could sense that his power was still sealed, but it was sealed from within, not something Kurotsuchi had done. It seemed that the hollow White knew he had to protect Ichigo from destroying himself with his own power. He led Ichigo to a larger room with a lofty bed covered with pillows and blankets.

“Come, you’ll stay with me,” Aizen said and pulled Ichigo into the bed. Ichigo looked curious but soon had buried himself in the soft covers and pillows. Aizen smirked and slid in himself, covering up and sighing. Before long he felt Ichigo move toward him, wrapping arms and legs around him desperately in an attempt to gain contact with someone. He smiled. Things were going just as he had hoped.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

[Year 11, Month 6, Day 1]

“The teams will breech Hueco Mundo at the designated points. We’ll be leaving two captains in Karakura Town along with the Vizard and Kisuke Urahara,” Kyōraku said as he looked over the gathered people. “This is an extraction. Engage and capture, even if they are an Espada, do not kill them. We need information more than anything. If you engage with Kurosaki, attempt to subdue but do not put yourself in danger. Retreat and report his location. We are unsure his current state and capabilities. Any questions?” he asked as he looked around at those gathered.

Kenpachi stood ready with most of the eleventh division. Beside him, Byakuya stood with several from sixth. Shūhei stood with a good contingent from the fifth. Kira stood with a large group from the third. Ukitake chose to stay in Soul Society, working on a project of his own to try and help Ichigo when they returned with him. Kurotsuchi was also busy with constructing a cell that could hold him but would be accessible to those that were going to try and work with him. Toshiro and Matsumoto had a large group from the tenth, and Unohana had a very large group from the fourth. Soi Fon had gone to Karakura Town with Sajin and Iba. Ōmaeda had joined up with the group from the eleventh along with a couple other second division Shinigami. 

“Good. Renji, you and Rukia will head the team with the humans,” he said with a nod toward the two of them as they stood with Orihime, Uryū, and Chad. “Remember, you may be the best or the worst person to encounter Ichigo. You will either be in a position to talk him into leaving, or he will simply attack you on sight. Don’t count on anything you think you know. He has been with Aizen for nearly six months as we prepared this incursion. We do not know for sure the state that he’s in.”

There was consensus and everyone was off on their designated assignment. The infiltration into Hueco Mundo was very similar to the first time, however, this time they knew what to expect. There were no surprises as they made the approach. The skirmishes weren’t unexpected. After much time passed, Rukia and Renji led their team to the walls first. They looked around and found it deserted.

“Did we come to the wrong place?” Renji asked.

The Getsuga Tenshou that threw all five of them back surprised them. They heard laugher, high pitched and eerily similar to what they’d heard before. There was a loud sound and Ichigo was standing on top of the wall, Zangetsu slung over his shoulder and looking down at them. They couldn’t see much except the white uniform and the crop of orange on top of his head. The sword was already in Bankai, Rukia and Renji knew immediately.

“There are pests at the wall!” he yelled and crouched down on the wall. A sonido sounded and beside him Grimmjow and Nnoitra appeared.

“Well, Ichi-baby, aren’t you right about that?” Nnoitra said as he stood with both hands on his hips. “Grimmjow, you owe me. I said they’d show up in less than six months.”

“Dammit,” Grimmjow growled. “Tomorrow made six months, too. You assholes couldn’t have waited one more day before you showed up?” he yelled down at them. “Dammit.”

Ichigo giggled and then swung his sword behind him, slamming it into Nnoitra’s leg.

“Goddammit, you crazy fucker!” Nnoitra said with a growl, thunking his hand on the back of Ichigo’s head hard enough that he almost fell off the wall. “You fucking cut me, goddamn.”

Nnoitra kicked slightly as blood dripped down his leg. Ichigo smiled and looked up. “Pretty!”

Grimmjow snickered. “At least he’s after your fucking blood this time! I still got fucking scars for the last time he thought my blood was pretty!”

Nnoitra snorted. “Why you gotta cut through my hierro? Huh, baby? No one else can!”

Ichigo smiled and stood up, this time slashing Nnoitra’s arm and watching him bleed. He leaned over and licked Nnoitra’s arm where the blood was beading.

Nnoitra growled and shoved him off the wall out into the sand. The others watched as he simply fell; he didn’t stop himself. “Fuck!” Nnoitra said, holding his arm. “Fucking hell, that is so fucking annoying!”

Grimmjow laughed out loud. He leaned over. “You okay down there, Cero?”

Manic laughter came from where the sand had puffed up around him. “I’m bleeding…it’s pretty…”

“Ichigo, you’re supposed to be killing the people over there, remember?” another voice said, and the group looked to see Aizen was standing between Grimmjow and Nnoitra now with his arms crossed over his chest. “You remember what I said you could do if you killed them?”

“Oh!” came Ichigo’s voice and a second later he was standing in front of them. “You! I have to kill you!”

Everyone stared for a minute at him. His hair fell in a long braid that started on the crown of his head and ended below his waist. There was a cloth or wrapping or something threaded through his hair, though, but they couldn’t see exactly what it was. Zangetsu looked the same as they remembered it Bankai, and obviously, Ichigo moved with the speed of his Bankai. From the end of Zangetsu, though, there was a chain that coiled up his arm and attached to a metal collar at his throat. He tilted his head to the side and grinned at them. There was a circle or some kind of marking in black on his throat right above the metal collar that went up under his chin. His black markings from his Shinigami form nearly touched around him now. He wore a white uniform like the rest of those in Las Noches, though. It was a long coat that was nearly identical to his Bankai coat but it had no sleeves and was edged in red all the way around. He wore a pair of loose white hakama, but they were edged in red as well. There was a deep cut on his forehead that was dripping blood freely but he didn’t seem to mind it.

Rukia exchanged a glance with Renji. “Ichigo!” she said. “It’s me, Rukia, your friend!”

Ichigo frowned and looked at her. “Yeah, yeah, I remember,” he said with a strange flat tone. Then he giggled for a second and a mask started covering his face. “But I’m gonna kill ya now,” he said as his eyes shifted into black and gold. “Cuz I wanna see you bleed into the sand. It’s so pretty, and Master says that if I get you to bleed I can stay down here and play with it until I’m tired out, then I can go to the bath again for a long time! Master loves me,” he said with a smirk as he flew into a spin and engaged both Rukia and Renji at the same time.

“Ichigo!” Orihime said as she dodged another wild swing. “Stop this!”

Chad stepped in front of her with Uryū. Chad had called up his Fullbring but wasn’t sure exactly what he should do. Uryū knew he couldn’t shoot him, he was there to take care of any hollows or Arrancar that tried to intervene when they captured Ichigo.

Ichigo stopped, Zangetsu crossed over behind his back blocking Zabimaru, and his other hand bleeding as he held onto the blade of Rukia’s sword with ease.

“But…this is what I deserve!” he said and started laughing as he swung down and backward. He pushed up and flipped over, landing for a second on Renji’s shoulder. He then leaped off and nearly impaled Uryū as he landed, Zangetsu sliding into the sand to the hilt.

He yanked but it was stuck. “Aww…” he muttered but was up and diving under an expanding Zabimaru. The chain on his arm uncoiled as he spun and then he was using it to pull Zangetsu free. He bounced off the flat of Rukia’s blade and was back up in a moment. His white uniform was liberally splattered with blood now. He was still laughing as he managed to cut and slash at everyone a few times before he was pinned between Rukia and Renji. He laughed out loud because he was blocking Zabimaru with Zangetsu in front of him, but he was using his arm to block Rukia. Blood was running down from the gash that was bone deep in his forearm from her sword sliding through the skin. He grinned at her as he tipped his head over backward to look at her.

“What…what is this…” she said as she locked eyes with him.

Ichigo giggled and dropped Zangetsu suddenly, causing Zabimaru to slide straight through his shoulder and right into Rukia’s sword arm. He laughed as blood flew from the wound and he dropped the sword. Because of the chain, though, the sword just dangled beside his arm.

“Ooops,” he said as his right arm went dead. “Musta cut the workings again! Octavo’s gonna have a fit about it! He just reattached that arm yesterday!” he said and smiled at Renji who was staring horrified as he retracted Zabimaru from Rukia’s shoulder.

“Okay, enough,” came a voice and they looked up to see Aizen was standing down where Ichigo had been a moment ago.

“I’m having fun!” he screamed and started to leap again.

“Enough!” Aizen said and Ichigo gasped and looked at him. He ducked under the others and flash stepped back to Aizen, using his left arm to put Zangetsu on his back. He stopped and knelt down at Aizen’s feet, blood starting to pool around him from the wounds he’d acquired. “Look! So pretty!”

Aizen reached down and ran a hand over Ichigo’s head. He’d braided his hair down his back and it was a little mussed now. “Yes, my dear, so pretty. I’m sure you’re happy you got to play some. You’ve been wanting a good play session for a while with someone you don’t have to hold back on.”

Ichigo looked up at him and nuzzled into his hand and sighed. “It was fun; can I go back?”

“Not yet, my dear. Not yet. Remember, we’re playing a long game, and we can’t just show all our moves just yet,” Aizen said as Ichigo continued to smile and stare at the others.

“What did you do to him?” Rukia screamed.

“Me? I fixed what you did. He’s much better now. Still mad, but at least he isn’t trying to rip his own body parts off any longer,” Aizen said as Ichigo arched into his hand, nearly purring. He glared under hooded eyes at them as he turned and licked at Aizen’s palm. “Or attempting to disembowel himself, or any number of things he did when I first started trying to fix what Kurotsuchi did to him.”

He reached down and gathered Ichigo up into his arms and disappeared over the wall to Las Noches, leaving the five of them staring at what they’d seen.    

* * *


	3. When They Are Alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song Inspiration: I’m So Sorry – Imagine Dragons

[Year 11, Month 2]

At first, Aizen wasn’t sure how to handle Ichigo. After he’d let him out into Las Noches, there were a string of incidents that left him wondering if he was ever going to fix the boy. He almost wanted to cut his losses and cut his throat several times. The third time he found him sitting in the middle of a hallway, one of the lower ranking Arrancar completely dismembered around him, and drawing pictures in the blood, he figured he needed to come up with a plan.

“Fucking hells, I thought Nnoitra was a sadistic fucker,” Grimmjow muttered as he leaned against the wall just out of the range of the massive splattering of blood on the walls and floor.

Aizen stood beside him with his arms crossed. “What exactly did he do to…him…her…I can’t tell what Arrancar it was…”

Grimmjow shrugged. “No idea what the fuck happened. I think it was that one with the full mask you brought out last week. Fuck, I dunno. He was walking this way and we were going that way and Ichigo just screeched and flew at him. I didn’t even see what killed him, just there was blood and guts and I think his head went down the hall where that blood trail goes…” he muttered. “Crazy mother fucker doesn’t even have claws or a sword, he just fucking ripped him apart with his bare hands…”

Aizen sighed. “Ichigo?” he called.

“What?” he answered. He was laying in the middle of the largest pool of blood on his stomach, legs kicking randomly like a child coloring. He was drawing designs in the blood and then giggling and talking to himself. “Look…look…I like that…we should do it next time…” he muttered. “Shut up, I’ll do what we want,” he said and slapped his hand into the blood, splattering it all over the place.

Grimmjow groaned, kicking some that had splatted over his hakama. “Fuck, I’m gonna start wearing black if I have to play nursemaid much longer. I’m more red than white most the time.”

Aizen walked over and knelt down in the blood. He grabbed Ichigo’s chin and tilted his head up. “My dear, why did you kill this one?”  So far, when asked, Ichigo hadn’t been able to tell him why he killed the other two.

“He wanted me,” he said with a wide eyed stare. “But he can’t have me.”

Aizen tilted his head. “How do you know this?”

“I smelled it…” he said with a look on his face somewhat like fright, but then a smile split his face. “But I stopped it before he got to me. Nope, not going to let them do that. I’m not going to!” he screamed the last, body clenching and teeth grinding. “No, no!”

Aizen frowned. “Come, let’s go talk to Octavo. I have an idea what might be happening…” he muttered and stood.

“I dun wanna,” he muttered and put his head down on his arm, his braid falling into a pile of the gore. “I wanna stay here.”

“Now.”

Ichigo looked up and locked eyes with him. He slowly got to his feet, dripping blood from almost everywhere. Aizen was going to have to put him in a different color if this continued. He supposed the white splattered with blood was terrifying for his soon to be Cero. He reached for his hand and Ichigo took it, head dropping immediately. Aizen had no confirmation on why Ichigo seemed to do what he said, but he had an idea about that as well. He led him through the halls, getting more than one surprised look as they passed. Not everyone was used to Ichigo yet, especially not some of the newer and younger Arrancar. He knocked on the door to Szayelaporro’s lab and went in.

Szayel looked up. Aizen pushed Ichigo toward the table. “On the bed.”

Ichigo crawled up onto it and laid down, trying not to giggle as he began playing with his bloody hands.

“Ah, is he injured?” Szayelaporro asked as he approached.

“No, he’s not this time, it’s blood from an Arrancar he dismembered. Again. But he said something this time, about the Arrancar wanting him. He said he could smell it,” Aizen said as he crossed his arms.

“Smell it?” Szayelaporro said, looking over at him. “Didn’t you say that the crazy Taichou tried activating hollow drives?”

“Novena wasn’t sure exactly what he’d done, but something about using gases that sent him into a frenzy a few times. But he wasn’t able to get into the experiment chamber. The Shinigami he was masquerading as was a lower ranking member of the twelfth he’d consumed,” Aizen said with a sigh. “He couldn’t get any closer without risking detection. They would have noticed if he’d taken a new form and the other one just disappeared.”

Szayel moved around and pushed Ichigo’s hands down so he could snap the restraints on him. He just stared at him for a long moment. “Ichigo, I’m going to lock you in, okay? So you don’t hurt me.”

“Okay,” he said and grinned. “I like you so I dun wanna kill ya.”

Szayel smiled and giggled himself. Aizen rolled his eyes. “You need to stay sane, I know you’re enjoying having someone around more insane than you are.”

“Sorry, Aizen-sama,” Szayel said and sighed. “You did make me the Espada of Madness…”

“And that’s why you can figure out how to help him be less…unpredictable. I don’t mind the insanity, obviously, but if I can’t get him under control of some sort, I can’t do anything with him. He hasn’t even gotten to the point of manifesting his Zanpakutō yet. I can’t imagine what damage he could do with his weapon,” he said with a sigh.

Szayel nodded and looked down. “Um, damn, that’s a lot of blood. Was there any left in the body?” he muttered.

“Not much,” Aizen said with a sigh. “I don’t really care that he kills some of the lower ranking, useless ones, but I’m worried that he’ll escalate to going after the ones I actually want to keep around. Some of them are useful.”

“Okay, Ichigo, I want you to tell me if you smell anything, okay?” Szayel said as he pulled down a thing that looked like a shower head only a lot smaller. He pushed a button and Aizen saw a puff of smoke or gas come out of the end of it.

Ichigo immediately reacted, trying to tear his arms out of the restraints to get to the source of the smell. “No! No! We said no!” he screamed and very nearly got his hands out of the restraints. That was an impressive feat in itself, since the restraints had been crafted with Ichigo in mind.

Szayel pulled it back and Ichigo panted for a moment before his eyes fluttered and he looked like he was falling asleep. Szayelaporro glanced up at Aizen. “Yeah, you need to keep him away from any Arrancar that are seeking a mate. He’s probably going to tear them apart if he smells it on them.”

“Smells ‘it’?” Aizen asked. “What exactly was that?”

“Well, I hypothesized that the Shinigami researcher wanted to use Ichigo to understand hollows and Arrancar better. So he activated the drives. What I did was a puffed a concentrated dose of the pheromone that hollow alphas release. Only a hollow beta can detect it. I think what’s happened is that Kurotsuchi manipulated Ichigo’s chemistry to bring him in line with a beta. Usually, Arrancar don’t fall into that nonsense, but this is actually genius,” he said with a smile.

“Enough hero worship, what did he do?” Aizen said with a deep and long suffering sigh.

“Sorry, but it is genius. He closed off all of Ichigo’s powers except the hollow part of him, like blocked access to everything else. Then he forced the pheromones and reiatsu of a beta adjunca hollow into White. Because White was created, of course, he’s not your average hollow. He’s a hollow in the form of a Zanpakutō spirit. But what Kurotsuchi did was force White’s hollow instincts to the surface. That’s part of why Ichigo’s mind broke. He nearly became an animal in a literal sense,” he said as he looked over the readings.

Aizen nodded. “Do you think he actually tried to put hollows with him?” he asked, looking down at him. He had suspected it, of course, by looking at the records. But they had no confirmation.

“I know he did,” Szayel said with a sigh. “There’s traces of foreign hollow reiatsu signatures throughout his reiatsu. Some are fainter than others, so obviously, the infusion took place earlier. But no, he tried to actually mate hollows with him…that’s why he reacts to the alphas who are exuding the pheromone. Only the lower ranking Arrancar would have this trait still, the more powerful ones that are Espada level or close to it, won’t have this drive anymore. However, there is no way Kurotsuchi managed to find hollows anywhere near Ichigo’s power level, so I’m not sure how he managed this…”

Aizen sighed. “That’s…horrible.” Aizen couldn’t think of anything else, and he had no idea why it bothered him. It wasn’t like it was unexpected. Of course he would have tried it. As a scientist, he’d have to take every chance to explore a subject like Ichigo and what he was. Still, Aizen couldn’t shake the feeling that he didn’t like it. He sighed and looked at Szayel.

“What about the other drives? Are they going to cause problems?” he asked.

“Destruction, well, you’ve seen that pretty well, that drive is just one of the basic ones he operates on. If he doesn’t like it, he destroys it. If he’s scared of it, he destroys it. If he is bored and sees it, he destroys it. Consuming…I’m not sure how far that drive can successfully be pushed. I’m sure he’s consumed some lesser hollows. I’ve found very weak reiatsu signatures, not like the stronger ones, but these are more like he consumed them. Of course, he’s not entirely hollow, so it doesn’t work the same way, and instead of the hollow soul becoming integrated into his being, it simply dissipates. Ironically, it cleanses the soul like Zanpakutō would.”

Aizen nodded again. “Alright. One last thing. I seem to be able to command him when no one else can. Thoughts?”

Szayel looked at him. “You said you tried to use your reiatsu to subdue him at first, right? Simply letting it pressure him.”

“Yes, it was the only way to calm him when we first brought him here,” Aizen said with a nod.

“I think he equates you with calm now. You may have done it to subdue him, but because he’s so far out of control, anything that forces him under control feels good to him. So that’s why, I would guess, but I can’t be sure,” he said with a sigh.         

Aizen nodded and moved over to unhook him from the bed. He muttered but didn’t wake as he picked him up and headed to the bath with him once again. He didn’t wake the entire time, and Aizen guessed that exposing him to the concentrated pheromone had exhausted him. He put him into a yukata and took him to his room again, dropping him into the large bed. He turned in his sleep and grabbed one of the pillows and clutched it to him. Aizen was about to leave and summon Grimmjow to watch him, but he stopped and sat down beside him. He frowned and reached out and ran his hand over his head as he muttered in his sleep. Why was he caring about what had happened to him? Why did it matter to him?

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

[Year 11, Month 3]

Ichigo began to retain more of his faculties very slowly. The more he was around others, the more he seemed able to stay sane for longer periods of time. Aizen believed it had to be because of the solitary confinement. So, he decided that he needed to stay with one of the others at all times. Since Ichigo’s presence was somewhat draining, he decided that rotating care of him among the Espada would help the matter.

“But why do I have to deal with him?” Nnoitra growled as Aizen glared at him.

“Because Sexta needs to perform other duties for me. So you will handle watching him for today,” Aizen said and turned and left.

Nnoitra looked at him and sighed. Ichigo just looked at him for a long moment before he dropped to the floor and started picking at the hem of his hakama and started muttering to himself. Tesla came up and looked at him.

“Um, Nnoitra-sama…what are we supposed to do with him?” he asked with a deep frown.

“Make sure he doesn’t kill anyone, or himself,” Nnoitra muttered and shook his head. “He’s fucking nuts, no idea why Aizen doesn’t just cut his losses and fucking kill him.”

“I asked them to…” Ichigo muttered as he began playing idly with the end of his braid.

“Huh?” Nnoitra said as he knelt down in front of him.

Ichigo looked up. “Kill me. I said. And I tried. They wouldn’t let me die.”

“The Shinigami?” Nnoitra asked. He moved closer and tilted his head to the side, eye watching every move the boy made.

“Took my powers, closed ‘em up, and then just let me sit and die inside and not out…” he said with a sigh. “Begged and begged, please take me home, please…please…just wanna go home, please,” he said as he started to sway where he sat. “No one cares, no one…” He looked at Nnoitra suddenly with wide eyes. “I went mad.”

Nnoitra snorted. “That’s an understatement. Yer probably crazier than fucking Szayelaporro.”

Ichigo nodded with a very sad and serious look. “Yeah,” he whispered and poked at his head with both index fingers. “I know it, though, I know it…” he said emphatically. “I see, they don’t think I do, but I do…I knew…I knew I was going mad…couldn’t stop it…then the pain turned it all inside out.”

Nnoitra frowned and sat down beside him. Tesla arched a brow but stood behind him and watched. “Did they even let ya fight for it?” Nnoitra said finally.

“No, no,” he said and put his hands around his neck. “Heavy around me, all around, nope, nope, stay still, don’t move you’re a good subject, experimental subject, just shut up, here, this stops you from fighting. Oh, stop screaming…”

Nnoitra realized that he was actually choking himself as his eyes started to flutter. “Hey, stop that!” he said and grabbed his wrists. Ichigo blinked at him.

“Why…why…nothing left in here,” he said sadly. “I just want to go home. But I’m dead.”

“What’s that mean?” Nnoitra asked as he let his wrists go.

“They burned my body,” he said as he looked around as though his eyes were following something. “Put it by my mom. She woulda helped me…she wouldn’t have let them take me away…”

Ichigo couldn’t help it, thinking of his mother triggered his hand going to his mouth. Nnoitra frowned then realized he was trying to gnaw off one of his fingers again. “Oh, no, don’t you do that again, Aizen-sama is going to get pissed off at me if I let you do that…”

He snatched his hand back just as it started to bleed. Ichigo stared at the blood dripping on the floor and smiled as he watched it. “Raining,” he whispered. “So much rain…when I’m sad, it rains…”

“That’s not rain, dumbass, that’s blood,” Nnoitra said with a sigh.

Ichigo looked at him with a grin. “But it’s all I have…falling like rain…glistening…sparkling…wash it all away…wash it away like it never happened…break it. Break it, I said!” he screamed suddenly and stared at Nnoitra with wide eyes. “Why won’t you break it?”

“Break what?” Nnoitra asked, not letting go of his hand.

“My soul…” he said. “Break it, break it, pull it out…take him away…but you can’t…it can’t go, has to stay,” he said as he reached out with his other hand and started smearing the blood over the floor.

Suddenly Ichigo slapped the floor hard and turned around away from it. “Weak, weak, can’t even kill yourself,” he muttered.

Nnoitra frowned and moved around to the other side. “What’s that mean?”

“Don’t you see?” he practically screamed. “Weak! Can’t fight…can’t…fight it…so…”

“You don’t like not being able to fight, huh?” Nnoitra said finally, realization starting to dawn on him why Ichigo was so upset around him. “You remember fighting me, don’t you? And they wouldn’t let you fight what was happening. It’s why you try to fight it now. Can’t stand not being able to do what you know you have to do…”

“No!” he screamed and jumped to his feet. “I don’t! I want…want…” he suddenly turned and stared at Nnoitra and sniffed the air. “Sleep,” he muttered and crumbled to the floor in a dead faint.

Nnoitra frowned and got up and found that he was indeed asleep. He knelt down and picked him up. Tesla looked at Nnoitra curiously as he took him to his rooms and put him into the bed he slept in and sat down beside him, watching him for a long time. Tesla though it odd. Nnoitra seemed off, quite a bit, now.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Aizen hummed to himself as he sat at the conference table during what was supposed to be an Espada meeting. The problem was Ichigo was having none of it today. He sighed as Ichigo once more decided that sitting in the middle of the table was much more fun than sitting in his assigned seat.

“Ichigo. Why are you in the center of my conference table?” Aizen asked calmly.

“Shiro said to do it!” he explained as he rocked back and forth a few times. Aizen heard a couple of the Espada snicker. “He said it was fun! But I don’t know. I’m bored already,” he said and got up on his hands and knees. He crawled down the table to sit at the end right in front of Aizen. “I’m bored. We’re bored!” he announced, kicking his legs back and forth on either side of Aizen’s.

“Ichigo, we’re in a meeting. Remember? The people from Soul Society are going to try and take you back,” he said with a serious look.

Ichigo froze, eyes going wide and he shook his head. “Don’t want to go there again!” he gasped and slid off the table to the floor. He wrapped his arms around Aizen’s calves and clutched him tightly. “I don’t want to!”

Aizen reached down and rubbed his head. “I know, my dear. Please, just sit there while we work on this, can you do that?” he asked.

Ichigo didn’t answer he just nodded furiously against Aizen’s leg. He could feel the intensity of his heartbeat against his leg. Aizen looked up at the others. Primera, and Segunda’s fraccion, Estrella.”

“Where is Segunda?” he asked with a sigh.

Estrella, one of the more recent Arrancar that Aizen had created, sat in the place of the Second Espada’s seat. She had short dark hair and darker skin. Her mask fragment sat on the left of her face, a piece that resembled an octopus’s siphon. She looked at Aizen.

“I’m sorry, Aizen-sama, Jatya-sama is indisposed and requested that I attend in his place,” she said with a nod of her head.

“What good is a new fucking Segunda if he never fucking shows up and sends Octopussy over there instead?” Nnoitra said with a side glance at her.

Estrella bit her lip and glared at him. She said nothing to him though. To be honest, she would have gladly disemboweled him. Her hand clenched the short sword at her waist and then she looked back to Aizen who shook his head slightly as he continued to pet Ichigo’s hair beside him.

“Now, as I was saying, what are the reports from inside?” he said, ignoring Nnoitra and Estrella’s constant belittling of each other.

“Not much is new, it seems they’re still trying to organize. We expected it to take them a while to get such a major operation together,” Tier said from her position. “They seem to be focused on retrieving the boy.”

Aizen sighed. “Considering what they did to him already, I am certain they aren’t coming for him to help him. How likely is it that they are going simply destroy him?”

Szayel looked at him. “Um, at least seventy percent chance. I don’t see them even trying to fix most of what Kurotsuchi did. I’m becoming more concerned with what he did to try and separate White from him. I think that whatever it was is the reason he can’t manifest his Zanpakutō right now. It’s like his whole soul is fractured into pieces, and unless we can mesh them together, he can’t access all his powers. Of course, there’s also the issue of the foreign reiatsu. I’m afraid it may be causing some sort of interference as well.”

“Novena, didn’t you say that they were attempting to fracture him so they could remove White?” he asked.

“Yes. That was what I was told,” he said and looked around, his current visage still that of the blond Shinigami he’d been playing in the twelfth division. “I didn’t get much more before the extraction occurred.”

Aizen thought for a long moment then reached down and hefted Ichigo onto his lap. He was somewhat surprised at first but then just grinned at Aizen.

“Ichigo. Can you feel your Zanpakutō?” he asked.

Ichigo tilted his head to the side. “Zan talks to me.”

“Not that Zan, Ichigo. The sword. The spirit you talk to in your inner world,” he said with a soft sigh.

“Oh, in there, they’re drowning, you know, both of them,” he said and looked away at something no one else saw.

“They? What do you mean they’re drowning?” Aizen asked, trying to keep him focused.

Ichigo looked at him and giggled for a long moment. “Rain, rain, falling down, rain, rain, look at my frown,” he sang and pushed his fingers into his cheeks to force his face into a frown. “Shiro and Zangetsu, sitting on a pole, and…they’re under water in there! Don’t fall in, don’t fall, the water burns…burns like fire now…gonna eat them up,” he muttered, swaying slightly on Aizen’s lap.

“Shiro and Zangetsu?” Aizen asked. “Shiro is the voice you hear, right?”

“No, not that Shiro!” Ichigo said with a frown. “The _real_ Shiro. Not the one I made up to talk to when I was going crazy,” he said seriously. “The one in my inner world, Shiro, and then the old man. There’s two in there, you know,” he said and then looked away, eyes flickering rapidly between spaces around the room.

Aizen frowned and then smiled. “I understand now. There’s two entities in his inner world, that’s why he hears two voices now. Szayel, can you run tests on him for Quincy powers?”

Szayel stared at Aizen with a surprised glance. “Quincy powers?”

“Hmm, yes, I hadn’t thought it possible. But his mother, Masaki Kurosaki, the one that was infected with White, she was a Quincy. He may have inherited her bloodline as well…” he muttered as he watched Ichigo try to catch something that was flying around his face. Of course, there wasn’t anything there that Aizen could see.

Szayelaporro nodded. “Ichigo, will you come to the lab?”

He looked up and nodded. “We’re bored. Do you have any sweets this time?” he asked as Szayel took his hand.

Szayel sighed and led him out of the conference room. This had become one of the simplest ways to get Ichigo to do what he asked. He found that he loved candies and chocolates. “Yes, I’ll have some brought up, but only if you do what I say, okay?” he said as they walked through the halls.

Szayel thought it odd, being around someone that had less sanity than he did. It was almost like he could focus when Ichigo was around, but he didn’t know why. It was the strangest thing. Ichigo was giggling as they walked down the hall until an Arrancar walked past him. He stopped and stared at him with wide eyes. Szayel turned and managed to hold onto his hand as he tried to bolt suddenly. Unlike before when he’d simply ripped apart the other Arrancar, Szayel could tell he was panicking.

“Whoa!” he gasped, gripping his hand as he went to grab him with the other. “Ichigo! Stop!” he said as Ichigo tried to escape his grip.

“No! No…no…he’s in there…locked in…can’t stop it…stop it…leave me...alone…” he screamed and wrestled his hands away from him and was gone in a flash step.

“Oh…not good,” he muttered as he took off as fast as he could back to the conference room.

Aizen looked up as Szayel appeared and frowned. “What is it?”

“He’s got a Shunpo,” he said. “I don’t know where he’s gone. An Arrancar I didn’t know walked by, and he just panicked, not like when he’s gone after the alphas, this was different.”

Aizen got up and looked over at the others. “Ulquiorra, Grimmjow, Nnoitra. Go find him. Bring him to me when you do,” he said as he got up and headed to the lab with Szayel.

The three Espada all took off. Ichigo getting enough power back to use a Shunpo was a problem. That was going to make keeping track of him a whole lot harder.

Grimmjow grumbled as he stopped at various places around Las Noches. Where the hell would the crazy fucker go? He crouched on one of the inner walls and looked around. Something that scared him. Grimmjow wasn’t sure what that could be, the little bastard ripped his own fingers off at the slightest provocation. He frowned. Unless… He took off to where Novena was doing something that Grimmjow didn’t care about in the least.

“Hey, Novena,” he said as he landed near him. Novena was in his natural state now, the long thin mask covering his head. “What happened to the hollows that crazy Shinigami researcher used?”

He looked at him. “Oh, I was supposed to destroy them. I just set them loose in Soul Society, since I figured it would cause some chaos.”

“Even the ones he used in the alpha/beta tests?” he asked, frowning.

Aaroniero shrugged. “I don’t know, I mean, there were several adjunca that he’d used. There were a lot more that got purified. I was supposed to purify the ones that lived…well…I guess the ones from the alpha/beta testing would have been the only ones to survive. Ichigo killed the rest of them.”

“Any chance of them got back to Hueco Mundo?” he asked, thinking he had only seen Ichigo’s reactions fearful in one or two occasions, and usually they had to do with whatever the crazy fucking Shinigami had done.

Aaroniero seemed to think. “Possible, when we were coming through the gates that Aizen-sama had left open. I mean, there were only twelve or so that I let loose.”

“Would they be Arrancar?” Grimmjow said with a frown.

“I doubt it, I mean, they weren’t something that Aizen-sama would choose to become Arrancar…but they could have evolved on their own I suppose…” he said. “Well, there were several that he had tried to increase powers in, but I don’t think he had much success.”

Grimmjow growled under his breath and took off. If there were Arrancar in Las Noches that they didn’t know, that meant that the rumors were possibly true. There had been rumors for a while, none that Aizen had heard, of course. The rumor was there were hidden Arrancar in Las Noches. Some of them had been created by Aizen and either because they were too weak, or because they weren’t fit for his purposes, had simply wandered away. Grimmjow had never cared enough to check into it further, but if there were Arrancar that had naturally evolved, they could be somewhere like that. He stopped outside the bath and wondered if he’d come here.

He opened the door and heard someone in there. He sighed. Of course he’d come here. “Ichigo?” he called as he went into the room.

“Go ‘way,” he heard Ichigo mutter.

Grimmjow sighed and saw him curled into one of the seats in the water. Grimmjow shucked his jacket and kicked off his hakama. He sighed and put his sword down on the clothes before he stepped down into it to go over to him. Grimmjow sat down and looked over at him. His hair had come loose and was covering his face. He didn’t say anything for a long time.

“You saw one of them, didn’t you?” Grimmjow finally asked.

Ichigo didn’t say anything, he just seemed to curl in even more on himself. Grimmjow sighed and put a hand on his back. “Look. I know you aren’t all there, okay? I mean, you’ve been here for two months now and you’re barely able to put together one sentence together coherently. I don’t care much for that shit anyway, I mean, I’m not what you’d call fucking sane. Espada of fucking destruction and shit. But what that fucker did…it wasn’t right. You shouldn’t have had to had any of that shit happen.”

Grimmjow moved toward him again. “Look, you went through hell…”

“Worse than hell…” Ichigo whispered finally without moving. Grimmjow could feel the shiver through his body. “They left me…they left me alone…”

“I know. Some friends.”

“I love them. I hate them. I just want them to know I…I…don’t…blame them…” he whispered finally.

“What?” Grimmjow said and turned sharply.

Ichigo turned toward him with eyes that were clear for a rare moment. “I don’t…” he said. “I know they were in pain. They couldn’t see. But…I should just have died…”

“Ichigo, you…you know sometimes, don’t you?” he said. “You sometimes, you’re clear enough to know how insane you are?”

“I lost my mind…” he whispered and put his hand against his face. “In there, in that tower, watching the world pass outside…and they…they didn’t care…they just…forgot me…forget me…” His nails started digging into his cheek and letting blood drip down his face. “I had to feel…I had to feel…”

Grimmjow reached out and grabbed his hand and pulled it away. “Hey, Kurosaki…”

“No, don’t call me that, don’t call me that…” he muttered. “I’m not that…not that…”

“Huh?” Grimmjow said with a frown. “You…why not?”

Ichigo shook his head. “Nuh…not me…”

Grimmjow was quiet for a long time. “Did he say why he wanted to do the tests with those smells you don’t like?”

“Wanted to see…see how it worked…” he said still trying to wrench his hand out of Grimmjow’s grip, but it was weak. “You…you have it…” he whispered finally.

“Have what?” he asked in confusion.

“The smell,” he said and leaned forward into him with an exhausted sigh. “But it doesn’t scare…me…like the others…”

“The smell?” Grimmjow asked then it dawned on him. “The alpha smell?”

Ichigo nodded and breathed into his neck. “It makes…me clear…for a little bit…”

Grimmjow nodded and held onto him for a long moment. “Okay.”

After Ichigo fell asleep on him he picked him up and took him to Aizen’s room. He laid him down into the large bed and stayed there. He didn’t know what to think about what he’d said. He looked up when the door opened and Aizen stood there.

“Where was he? What happened?” Aizen asked with surprising feeling to the words.

“I think…I think he saw one of the ones Kurotsuchi used, they’re here, an Arrancar now, I think. He flipped out, he was in the bath. He…he said something that I smelled like them…but it made him clear for a little while,” Grimmjow said with a frown.

Aizen moved and sat down beside him. “Octavo is right, I think he’s somehow partitioned off the hollow, made the primary part that manifests.”

“So what do we do?” Grimmjow asked, and somehow he was actually concerned about it.

“I’ve got to figure out how to repair this…fracture is the best word I can come up with. It’s like he fractured his soul in the attempt to remove White.”

“Something I’m wondering, Aizen-sama,” Grimmjow said slowly. Aizen turned his gaze from Ichigo’s unconscious form up to Grimmjow. “Why?”

Aizen stared for a long moment. “Why? What does that mean, Sexta?”

“Okay, I get you want his power. Yeah, got that shit, okay. Fine. But you’ve spent two months pretty much letting him run completely wild, killing and maiming I don’t know how many Arrancar, using me, Nnoitra, and Ulquiorra as nursemaids to make sure _he_ doesn’t get hurt. You get angry any time something like this happens when he freaks out or has a fucking ten-minute window of not batshit crazy and mentions what they did to him. This ain’t a power play anymore,” Grimmjow said with a sigh. “So I want to know what is it? Because…something’s happening, and I don’t know what the fuck it is, but I have the strongest inclination to fucking dismember every fucking person in Soul Society that did some of this shit to him. And I don’t fucking know why.”

Aizen looked at him and sighed. “It began simply, Sexta. It was so simple. Just like Gin and Tōsen. Just like you Espada. A means to an end. I’d get the boy. I’d use him for his power. Then what happened afterward simply didn’t matter. He was disposable. The hogyuku. It does whatever I ask of it, but it also does what I don’t ask of it. So I’m thinking it is affecting us in subtle ways. Trying to fix what’s broken.”

“What is it you didn’t ask of it?” Grimmjow asked.

“To feel something for another,” he said as he ran a hand over the messed and damp hair that fell around Ichigo’s form. “To stop being lonely.”

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Andresta hit the doorway faster than he intended, nearly knocking himself flat as he hurried through the passages down into the hidden city. He hadn’t meant to panic. He honestly hadn’t. It wasn’t like all the memories from before he became an Arrancar were intact. Sometimes, there were glimmers, of course, but nothing that he could really say he knew for sure what they meant. He wound his way through the winding paths of Agartha to try and find the person he thought might be able to help. He was a fortune teller after all.

“Zeboim!” Andresta yelled as he came skidding into the house that he was staying in.

The darker skinned Arrancar looked up at him in confusion. He locked his brilliant green eyes onto Adnresta’s yellow ones. “What is it, Andresta?”

“I need your help!” he said and ran in and dropped to his knees before the other Arrancar.

Zeboim growled. “Stop that, get up from there.”

Andresta stood up and wrung his hands together. Andresta had been an adjunca when he became an Arrancar. Zeboim had actually found him wandering the sands, confused and completely without memory of what happened and how he evolved to an Arrancar. He’d led him down into Agatha and showed him the colony of Arrancar, both natural and those that had escaped Las Noches and Aizen’s command. They’d just wanted to live without being controlled.

“Help, I saw…I think I saw…someone from before!” he gasped, his bright yellow eyes almost glowing. His mask fragment looked like a necklace of sharp teeth that were somewhat canine in appearance.

“From before you showed up here?” Zeboim said and scratched at the cat ear looking fragments on his skull.

“The one…in the lab…that they…” he said with wide eyes.

“Calm down,” Zeboim sighed and turned toward the hyena Arrancar. “What happened? Were you up in Las Noches again?”

“Yes, but I was careful, see, I’ve a uniform!” he said and gestured to the white clothes he was wearing, now the white typical uniforms up in the large city overhead. “I wanted to see if I could find any of those pieces of tech that we could use up there to fix the broken coolers!”

“Okay, so what are you talking about?”

“I told you, I couldn’t remember, before you found me…but I saw him. And I remembered it…what happened…how I cracked my mask…how it all happened!” he said desperately wringing his hands.

“What, then?” Zeboim said as he sat down in the makeshift chair cobbled together with fabric and bones.

“He used me…the scientist…he put me in a cage…a cage with…with a…it wasn’t a hollow, Zeboim. It wasn’t! But he smelled like one, like a beta in heat…and I couldn’t stop…stop…” he looked at Zeboim. “And he’s up there…the one in that cage, whatever he is!”

Zeboim thought for a moment. “That might be a problem. Did he see you?”

“He did, he flipped out and took off as soon as he saw me! I don’t know how he recognized me, I…I was a…a lot different…” Andresta said with a gasp.

“Smell, Andresta,” Zeboim said with sigh. “You’re saying you mated him, he’s still going to recognize your smell and your reiatsu. This might be an issue if someone up there realizes we’re down here…” Zeboim sighed. “I’ll summon the others…” he said as he stood up. “we should probably get everyone together and figure out if we need to do something. We have to figure out what’s going on up here.”

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“I can’t do this anymore!” Shiro screamed as he tried to keep himself on the pole over the water.

Zangetsu stood nearby precariously balanced himself on another pole. “We can’t do anything, not until something happens. The water is poisoned, and unless it’s cleansed, it will destroy us.”

Shiro touched the water with a finger and felt the sharp and painful sting as it tried to eat away the digit. “How could they do this…” he said.

“Your torture was more than mine, only because Kurotsuchi didn’t realize what I was,” Zangetsu said with a sigh.

“Torture? Is that what that was? Because I don’t know what the fuck that was!” Shiro snapped. “That was death without the pleasure of fucking dying!”

“I know,” he said with a sigh.

“And King is fucked the hell up. Like, I don’t even know what the fuck to do with this… If I take control, it ain’t gonna be pretty because it’s gonna be like the last time. I’m not gonna tell friend from foe,” he said as he knelt on the pole.

“I know, that’s why you haven’t done it yet,” Zangetsu knowingly said as he looked around. Literally, there were two spots, the two longest flagpoles that emerged from the largest building in the inner world, that were out of the sick blackish gray water that surrounded them. The rain had been bad enough, but then, bubbling up from underneath the water, the black ichor had started to erode anything it touched.

The ichor was Ichigo’s madness. It threatened to consume everything. Now and then, a bubble of clear water would burst on the surface, and for a brief second, the two spirits could see to the outside world but then it was gone as quickly as it came. They couldn’t touch it else they would literally be obliterated from existence. They held on. They had to hold on. If they didn’t…they were done for. All of them.

“Is there any answer?” Shiro asked and realized that tears were falling into the black ichor that threatened to consume them. “Anything we can do?”

“I’ve done all I can. I’ve pushed his power behind the fractures, in hope that he can’t use them. He got to his Shunpo, though. I’m not sure that I know why or how he managed to get to it. The longer we’re confined, the weaker I become,” Zangetsu said with a sigh. “I have an idea, but you will have to be the one to enact it.”

Shiro looked across the gap. “Whatever, I’m seriously going to go mad myself here.”

“Let the hollow drives loose,” he said, looking at him.

“What?” Shiro said. “If I do that…if I let him go like that…you know what will happen. I don’t know if he can handle it. At all. Not after what that bastard did during his ‘experiments’. You felt what happened today.”

“I know, but it may be enough to break the seals on his power. I don’t know any other way to force his spiritual energy through this ichor. All if it is underneath it…and the only think that might repair his mind is his reiatsu being under his control again. He needs to get the foreign reiatsu to dissipate. You know that it is poisoning us. And the only way to do that is to replace it.”

Shiro sighed. “I’m gonna have two swim through it, aren’t I?”

“It’s the only way.”

“Will I make it?” he asked.

“We have to merge again. Or there’s no way we’ll make it to the bottom where his reiatsu is clear, where Ichigo is still himself.”

Shiro nodded. “I want my King back.”

Zangetsu nodded and the two spirits united again, pausing before they dove into the thick and heavy ichor of Ichigo’s madness, hoping that there was enough sanity in Ichigo’s soul to survive. If they didn’t, there was no hope left.

* * *

 

 

* * *


	4. When They Go Down Below

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song Inspiration: Heaven Knows – The Pretty Reckless
> 
> First Draft, so no doubt spelling and grammar. 
> 
> Edit: so this is totally full of mistakes. I have got to stop writing at three am when I'm half asleep...  
> Edit 2: okay so I caught some of them. Here's hoping!
> 
> Updates to chapters one-three, some pretty expansive (Chapter one started at 6000 words, it's up to 12000 almost).

 

[Year 11, Month 6, Day 2]

Rukia and the others retreated to a nearby cavern system in hopes that they could think this over before they tried to get into Las Noches again.

“What…what was that?” Uryū asked as he looked around at them. “That…that was Ichigo, right?”

Rukia nodded nervously. “That’s…that’s what he is now, anyway. I think…I don’t know that we can save him.”

“He called him Cero,” Renji said softly. “The blue haired one, Grimmjow. He called him Cero.”

Orihime looked between them, hands clutched at her chest. “Cero? Did he use…but he can’t turn Ichigo into an Arrancar, right? He’s not…not…”

“He had a zero on his throat,” Chad said. “I saw it when he was fighting, above that collar.”

Rukia sat down in the sand slowly. “If he…if he turned him into one…he didn’t have a hollow hole, though. There wasn’t one there; the black mark was on his chest, but no hole. He didn’t have the black markings when he left Soul Society. So something has changed since he got here.”

“Maybe he gave him the number without turning him into an Arrancar?” Uryū said softly.

“He wouldn’t…that…that would mean he was more powerful than that Arrancar that they fought over Karakura. The one with the one on the back of his hand,” Renji said. “Like that big ass creature that was ten until he released and he was 0 then… So Ichigo is that powerful now…”

“He always was,” Rukia said as she grimaced with her back to the group as she bandaged the wound in her shoulder. Luckily, only the end of Zabimaru had gone into her shoulder. The wound was only about three centimeters deep, and had quit bleeding quickly.

“How are you?” he said looking at Rukia.

“I’ll be fine, Unohana-taichou gave me some supplies,” she said and pulled her shihakuso back over her now bandaged shoulder. “He’s insane. He let you run him through, nearly took his arm off, just to make you stab me with Zabimaru,” she said quietly. “He said he was going to kill us.”

“What did Aizen mean by he was better now? I mean, he was obviously pretty damn crazy still…” Renji said with a frown. “I mean, who lets their opponent nearly sever their arm like that. And he said he had to have someone reattach it…”

“He remembered what I said to him,” Orihime said quietly, and the others could see she was crying. “That he deserved what he got. How…how could I say such a thing…no one deserves what has happened to Kurosaki-kun.”

Chad nodded. “We can help him, still. There’s a chance we can reason with him. He’s still Ichigo.”

“I’m not sure about that,” Rukia said as she rubbed her shoulder. “That…I don’t know what that was. I’ve seen the hollow, you have too, and that wasn’t the hollow. That was Ichigo.”

“He remembers what we said; that doesn’t bode well for capturing him,” Renji said with a sigh. “He’s going to try and kill us every time we see us, and he has no concern for himself. Obviously, Aizen is nearby when he fights, which is in itself odd.”

“I would imagine he won’t remember things too kindly from what we said to him. I’m not surprised he wants to kill us,” Uryū said with a sigh as he wandered toward the back of the cavern they’d hidden in. He took a step forward and then felt the world fall out from under him and yelped as he slid down a ramp of some sort.

“Ishida-kun!” Orihime said and ran over to him, only to skid right down into the ramp after him.

Chad didn’t hesitate, he just ran and jumped in after them, and Rukia and Renji stared at each other for a second before they followed. They had no idea what they just ran into, but they were well out of the range of Las Noches. They tumbled out into an open area lit with some sort of luminescent moss lining the walls. They all stood up and looked around.

“Where the hell are we?” Renji asked as he turned around just in time to see someone put a spear to his throat. He looked up and up to see a figure that had to be an Arrancar with a huge helmet with horns over his head and a large spear at him. He was perhaps nine feet tall and was just staring at him with solid black colored eyes.

Renji glanced behind him and saw that they were surrounded with their back to the wall by at least eight Arrancar. Renji looked at Rukia and she shook her head, raising her hands. None of these Arrancar spoke, they just took their weapons and shuffled them down a winding serious of mazelike corridors that lasted forever. They passed alcoves and rooms, some open, some covered with some sort of curtains of various colors. All over the place, different types of lights lit up the place, from the glowing moss, to lanterns, and some flaming sconces. They were roughly pushed into a room where there were several pallets laid out for sleeping, where there were a few other figures already there. They were taken to the far corner and each of them were shackled with some sort of sealing cuffs that the huge Arrancar pulled from his bag. He then chained them to the wall with enough chain to move around a little, but not much. He nodded, then turned and left with the others that had captured them.

“What the hell just happened?” Renji said, looking at the others. “This isn’t Las Noches. Those are Arrancar, though,” he said, watching as several others walked around him. He could see they had the mask fragments, and hollow holes still.

Rukia looked around and saw that none of them were paying them much attention at all, just going about their business.

“Where…where in the world are we?” Rukia asked as she looked around.

There was a crash on the other side of them and Orihime gasped as a couple of the Arrancar that had just come into the room fell onto a nearby mat in a tangled heap. Both of them were nude, and within short order, all five of those shackled realized what they were doing.

“Oh, my,” Rukia said as she turned away. “Okay…did I just see…”

Renji was watching intently. “Yup. Definitely having sex.”

Rukia reached up and smacked Renji on the arm. “Stop watching!”

“Why? They don’t seem to mind, besides, she’s got a nice…” This time Rukia punched him in the gut. He grunted and sat down with a sigh. “I’m just curious…” he muttered.

The couple apparently fell asleep and the group continued to watch around them. These Arrancar were different than the ones they’d met before. They wore eclectic assortments of clothing from the World of the Living, when they wore clothes, as some seemed to just wander around nude. More than once they had to divert their attention as a pair or more fell into one of the nearby mats in a heap with each other. Renji tried to watch covertly, but Rukia seemed to catch him every time. He noticed, though, that some of them seemed to emit a pulse of reiatsu during their encounter. It was a warm feeling, though, when it washed over them. The others noted it but none had any idea what it could have been.

After a few hours, they guessed, at least, a female Arrancar came into the room. She was headed toward them with a shorter male Arrancar in tow behind her. She wore layers of soft colored silk and had lovely long brown hair cascading down her shoulders and back. As she got closer, they realized that her mask fragment was a pair of feather looking earrings that dangled from her earlobes. The shorter Arrancar behind her had a round mask fragment around one of his eyes. They stopped and she looked over them.

“Why are you here?” she said in a soft and soothing sounding voice. She crossed her arms over her ample breasts and stared at them.

“Hoot,” said the shorter male beside her with a frown across his round face.

Rukia stood up and looked at her. “I’m Rukia Kuchiki. I’m a…”

“Shinigami, yes, I know Shinigami when I see them. What I want to know is why you are here with three humans that have such strong reiatsu?” she asked, looking toward Orihime, Uryū, and Chad.

Rukia cleared her throat. “Um, Aizen has our friend, and we came to get him…” she began.

“The leader of Las Noches has your friend.” Her voice sounded flat at the statement. “Why should this concern us?”

“Because Aizen’s…he’s trying to destroy everything!” Orihime said with a frown at the Arrancar.

“We are perfectly happy here, in our home, hidden from any that would try and bother us,” she said as she looked over them.

Renji stood then. “Look, we came here because we messed things up. And our friend…he’s paying for what we did. We want to help him.”

The dark haired Arrancar looked at him. “How did you know how to find Las Noches?”

“We’ve been here before,” Uryū said without thinking first. He gasped and wondered if that had been the best thing to say.

“You have,” she said. “When some of the Espada died.”

“Yes,” Rukia said. “We fought some of them, here and in the World of the Living.”

“Maxi,” she said, turning to the owl Arrancar beside her. “Go find the ones that have come from Las Noches. We shall see what their opinion of these Shinigami are.”

“Whooo,” he said and took off. It was somewhat disconcerting that as he left, he turned his head almost 180 degrees to look back at them.

“What is this place?” Chad asked as he spoke for the first time.

“Agartha,” the Arrancar said. “This is our safe haven, for those of us that your Shinigami creates and abandons, or those of us that evolve on our own.”

Rukia nodded. “That’s why when we fell into your passage you brought us here and confined us,” she said with a sigh. “You’re protecting your secret home. But why near Las Noches? Isn’t it dangerous to be near Aizen and his Espada?”

She smiled at her. “Well, the fact is, a lot of our people come from Las Noches, either escaping or being left for dead outside the walls.”

“Whoo!” came the shorter Arrancar’s voice as he came back with three familiar Arrancar.

“What is it, Imelda?” asked the blonde haired female Arrancar as she approached. She stopped and stared at Orihime. “The woman.”

“Menoly,” Imelda said with a nod. “These Shinigami and their human friends say they’ve been here before.”

Loly looked at Menoly and back at Orihime. They looked much the same as when Orihime had seen them before. They were dressed differently, though. Menoly wore short pants and some kind a jacket over a tank top, and Loly wore a short skirt and a halter top. Both wore bright colors now instead of the white uniforms.

“She healed us, even though we tried to kill her,” Menoly said with a curt nod at Orihime. “The rest I know not.”

“I know the tall one,” came the third voice and Chad recognized the Arrancar that he had fought. Gantenbainne nodded. “Their healing Shinigami healed me after the fight with him when I was defending Aizen.”

Imelda nodded slowly. “Are they to be trusted here?” she asked the three other Arrancar.

Loly and Menoly exchanged a glance and then looked at Gantenbainne. He shrugged at her. “I don’t know why they would try to harm us. We have no quarrel with them. Before they had come to Las Noches to rescue the woman there.”

“We’re here to get Ichigo, Aizen has him,” Rukia said, hoping they knew who she was talking about. “The orange haired Shinigami that defeated Ulquiorra and Grimmjow.”

“Oh, that one,” Loly said with a nod. “Yeah, I heard from Andresta that he’s up topside.”

“Have you seen him?” Rukia asked franticly.

“Hell no, we don’t go up there,” Menoly said, shaking her head. “We don’t have a death wish. We’re fine down here. I am not putting my beta in danger by coming near that place again. But he’s in Zeboim’s room right now. He keeps running to him and begging him to curse him with his cards so he’ll die.”

“I can take you to Andresta,” Imelda said with a nod. “But I warn you, if you try to harm any of our people, I will destroy you.” Her eyes narrowed and she settled a glare on each of them in turn.

Rukia nodded. She didn’t doubt it. She assumed that this Imelda was their leader since she came down to talk to them. She glanced around as several other wildly dressed Arrancar wandered by. It was almost surreal to see them.

Maxi went over and unhooked their wrists and hooted at each of them in turn. Imelda smiled at the other three Arrancar and they turned to leave. Orihime noted that Loly and Menoly left hand in hand. Imelda led them through a maze of twisting corridors toward a room that had a curtain with a strange nubby weaved texture.

“Zeboim,” she called out. “Andresta still with you? Menoly said he’d been with you lately.”

“Yes, come, Imelda, he’s still rather upset, I was about to take him to Medical,” came a deeper voice from inside. “He had another nightmare about things and he’s impossible to deal with today.”

Imelda pushed the curtain back and led the five into the room. He turned his bright green eyes on them. “Who is this?”

“They are some that invaded Las Noches last time there was an incursion,” Imelda said. “They are seeking the one who Aizen has up in Las Noches, the Shinigami boy.”

Andresta, who had been in a room that was up off the floor to the side, fell out of it onto the floor with a sob. Zeboim sighed. “Andresta, stop this nonsense! Get up and come over here if you are so distraught by your memories returning. It has been almost four months yet you still act as though it was yesterday,” he muttered as he petted the hollow dog on his lap.

The other Arrancar came out from behind a curtain and stared at the group in the dim light of the luminescent moss that lit the room. “I deserve death!” he moaned as he fell to his hands and knees before them. “Please kill me for what I’ve done!”

Rukia and Renji exchanged a glance as they looked at him. He got on his knees and they could see the mask fragment around his neck similar to the Primera Espada. “What did you do?”

“Horrible things! To the one in the cage!” he gasped and put his head down on his hands and wept.

Imelda sighed and looked at Zeboim. “Can you explain? I’ve never seen him so…upset. I’m afraid I haven’t been caught up on this particular situation. I haven’t seen much of you or Andresta lately.”

“He remembered what happened before he cracked his mask,” Zeboim said as he leaned back in the chair of fabric and bones. “It has been particularly traumatic for him.”

Imelda nodded. “Oh, was he one of the ones that had been…”

Zeboim sighed. “Apparently. Explains why he had no memory and was wandering the sands.”

“Ones that had been what?” Renji asked with a frown.

“Been experimented on by your people,” Imelda said and looked at him. “There are several here that wandered back from Soul Society after the scientist you have got done with them. Some are confined to the medical ward; others have some functionality to be left on their own. We sometimes know when an Arrancar has been manipulated, but we didn’t realize that Andresta had been.”

Maxi looked at Andresta. “Hoot!” he said seriously.

“I’m sorry!” Andresta said. “I just…how do I live with knowing what I did!”

“You didn’t do it, you were put in a cage and forced into alpha rutting, besides, you weren’t an Arrancar, so you were nothing more than instinct,” Zeboim said and waved his hand at him. “We’ve all been adjunca at some point, Andresta. You aren’t the only alpha here, remember?”

“But what I did…” he said and looked at the Shinigami. “What you made me do…”

Rukia and Renji realized he was staring at them. “I’m not a researcher…” Rukia said with a shake of her head. There was a sonido, though, and Andresta stood over her.

“You are not innocent of what others do in your name, Shinigami!” he said with sudden anger.

“Andresta, they are our guests…” Imelda said with a sigh.

“I don’t care! They sit by and watch as we’re treated like test subjects and tortured and forced to…to…” he stopped and gasped. “I can’t go back; I can’t go up there. He’ll see me again…I wasn’t even on two legs then…he still knew me…”

“You are a hyena hollow,” Imelda said with a nod. “So you were four legged as an Adjunca. So that is when the Shinigami had captured you. What is it that has you so very upset currently?”

“He was gathering parts up in Las Noches, and he ran into one of the other test subjects from the Shinigami researcher,” Zeboim said with a sigh. “One he’d forced into a beta heat.”

“No wonder he ran away from me! But he knows I’m here, now, and if he tells Aizen that I’m there, and I don’t belong, they might come looking…” Andresta said. “I should just go up there and turn myself into Aizen, then he can’t find the rest of you.”

Imelda sighed. “Andresta, if it has been nearly four months, no one is coming down as a result of him seeing you. Now, these Shinigami are looking for their friend, and I wanted to know if you had seen him while you were up there. He is a Shinigami, with bright orange hair…and…”

At the statement Andresta fell to the floor again weeping and covering his head, almost wailing. Zeboim looked at Imelda. “That is who he is talking of, Imelda.”

“But he is not even a hollow, how could they put him into a beta heat?” Imelda asked with a frown etching her brows.

“He wasn’t! Well, he was a hollow, but not really. And he smelled like it…so strong…and I couldn’t…couldn’t stop it. Something was wrong, though, very wrong…he didn’t fight, and I knew he was stronger than me,” Andresta said where he’d turned his head to lay his face on the floor. “He should have ripped my throat out. I knew it then because I didn’t even want to go in there with him. I thought I was dead the moment I smelled it.”

Imelda looked at him. “Wait, you claimed a beta more powerful than you were?”

Andresta nodded and whimpered. “I know!”

“Oh, this isn’t good,” Imelda muttered and crossed her arms over her bust.

“What are you all talking about?” Rukia said, trying not to put the pieces together in her head.

Imelda looked at her. “Your friend, he was in that scientist’s tests, yes?”

Renji and Rukia nodded slowly, regretting that they had to say yes. “Yes, there was…”

“I care not for the explanation. The point is that he has enough of a hollow soul that he was able to be claimed in a mating by an Alpha. But if a beta is mated by an alpha that isn’t as powerful as they are, there’s problems. They die eventually because the alpha’s reiatsu can’t overpower the beta’s, and it sinks into them like a fever, and they waste to nothing. Any beta that is easily overpowered by lesser hollows is sick, dying, or otherwise hurt and not fit to bear offspring. If this has happened to your friend, he may not live much longer,” Imelda said with a sigh.

Renji and Rukia looked down then Renji realized what she meant. “Wait, he mated, like had sex with, him?”

“I suppose, but not nearly as pleasant if he was forced into a cage with a rutting alpha he couldn’t fight,” Zeboim said from his seat. “I mean, I would imagine it would be quite…traumatic, especially with something like Andresta was. Four legged adjunca are powerful and…”

Andresta sobbed loudly and ran to hide in the alcove he’d been in before. They could hear him sobbing inside it as they wondered what exactly they were going to do…

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

[Year 11, Month 3, Day 18]

Aizen sat beside the bed as Szayelaporro went over another set of tests. He’d had to knock Ichigo out for this one. The last two weeks had been composed of nothing but constant testing. Ichigo spent much of it trying to get away from Szayelaporro’s lab, but they couldn’t let him. He was unpredictable with a Shunpo active now. Aizen wasn’t sure how to deal with this now, but more than that, he wasn’t sure what to do with his own emotions. He’d put the entirety of Las Noches on alert for any Arrancar that were out of place or didn’t belong. Worry edged at his thoughts, though. He looked up to see Ulquiorra had come down as he’d requested.

“Aizen-sama,” he said with a nod. “You requested me?”

“Yes, Cuarta. I need you to keep watch on Ichigo while I go check in with our new Segunda. He has missed the last several meetings, sending his fraccion instead. I would rather find out the reason for his absence.”

Ichigo watched him go and let a small whimper escape his lips. “He left…” he muttered.

Ulquiorra looked over at Szayelaporro who was busy with something at the moment. “I will stay with you,” he told Ichigo.

“You don’t like me,” he muttered and looked away.

Ulquiorra frowned and stared for a moment. “Why do you believe this?”

“I killed you already, you killed me, but we didn’t stay dead…” he commented and looked at Ulquiorra with a long look. “How did it happen…no one dies…no one really dies…can’t let them die…can’t die…suffering…gotta live…for the suffering…” he muttered and looked back at the ceiling.

“I’ll be damned,” Szayelaporro said as he walked back over. He looked down at Ichigo. “He’s a Quincy, too. No wonder Kurotsuchi couldn’t figure out how to separate his powers. He has three power sets…amazing. That explains why he doesn’t bleed to death. He has a power that staunches wounds.”

“You can tell this from your tests?” Ulquiorra asked quietly.

“Not all of it. Tests and observation. He never seems to bleed out when he should. I’ve reattached his fingers several time, or regrown them completely, but I wondered why he seemed to stem the blood flow so quickly. That’s the only answer,” Szayelaporro said with a smile. “Such a rarity, indeed…”

“Does it help reacquire his sanity?” Ulquiorra asked.

“Not at all. He’s still fractured from what I can tell. More than that, something has blocked his power behind the fractures. It might have to do with the spirits he has inside. The problem is, though, the foreign reiatsu is causing more issues at the moment,” he muttered with a sigh.

“Foreign reiatsu?” Ulquiorra asked.

“The crazy Shinigami tried to mate him with adjunca alpha hollows. But not only regular adjunca, it was ones that he had tampered with already. So they were more powerful than the ones normally found. It’s interfering with, almost poisoning, his own reiatsu.”

Ulquiorra frowned and looked at him as he twitched in the bindings he was wearing to hold him to the table. “Can you remove it?”

“Not any way I can find. It has to be overpowered by a more powerful alpha reiatsu,” Szayelaporro said with a sigh. “And considering what he’s done to all the alphas he’s come across, that may not be possible.”

“So this other reiatsu is causing the insanity?” Ulquiorra asked.

“Some of it, but not all of it. I mean, he’s fucking insane, and this just makes it even worse. There’s a chance…” he muttered and sighed.

“A chance?” Ulquiorra asked again.

“Well, if a powerful alpha were to claim him, releasing the reiatsu for the claiming right, there’s a chance that it might start healing the fractures. Alphas are supposed to care for the beta, so that means that their reiatsu is going to bolster the beta’s. It might be possible, but he’s too unpredictable to put with an alpha of any sort,” Szayelaporro said with a sigh.

Ulquiorra looked at him. “His power is great. Is that why there is a mismatch? The alphas that the scientist used were not equal or greater in power than he is?”

Szayelaporro gasped. “That’s it! That’s why the reiatsu is poisoning him,” he said excitedly and ran to the end of the table and began looking over readings. “That’s exactly the problem!”

“Because they were too weak?” the Cuarta asked with a frown.

“Yes, yes! In our unevolved states, adjunca and lower, the animal drives are what we are stuck with. Consuming souls to fill the emptiness in our own souls, destroying anything weaker than we are in attempt to feel something besides that emptiness, and procreating in another desperate attempt to fill the gnawing emptiness. Once evolving into Arrancar, most of us lose the lower needs, or they become less consuming. We become less animal and more…well, Shinigami. Arrancar are the bridge between hollow and Shinigami,” Szayelaporro said as he looked over a few more things. “So, when the Shinigami tried to mold Ichigo into a hollow, he didn’t count on the fact that he was far more powerful as a hollow than anything his people could capture. Ichigo’s hollow alone is equal in power to you, as you found out in the field of battle.”

Ulquiorra nodded. “So putting a hollow adjunca even with increased power with him was never going to do much. If they were not at least his power, how did he manage to not kill them?”

Szayelaporro moved around and pulled Ichigo to face him. “Ichigo?”

“Hum?” he said as his eyes flickered around Szayel’s face.

“Focus, I have to ask you about what Kurotsuchi did,” he said carefully.

Ichigo’s eyes stilled and widened as he stared into Szayel’s golden eyes.

“There, now. I need to know, when he put the hollows in with you, the ones with the smell, why didn’t you kill them?” he asked carefully.

Ichigo shook his head for a minute, but Szayel smiled at him. “Please, I need to know, to help you.”

“There was another smell with some of them,” he said quietly. “They…I couldn’t stop them…I killed so many of them, so many…then they gave me the thing that made me fall down and I couldn’t fight anymore…”

“He weakened you,” Szayel said with a sad smile. “No wonder they could claim you. Stupid Shinigami idiot,” he grumbled. “Just when I think he’s smart, he does something this stupid,” he muttered and turned a monitor around.

“What is it?” Ulquiorra said with a frown.

“See, that’s the game of it, with alphas and betas. The beta will kill any alpha that dares to approach them that isn’t near their power. But what this idiot scientist did was weaken him artificially, then throw a fully rutting adjunca hollow, less than half his power, in with him, and try to claim him. Because it is far too weak to overpower his reiatsu, even just the hollow reiatsu, it’s settled into him like a poison. It serves a purpose. Any beta that is already sick or dying wouldn’t be able to fight a lesser alpha. Alphas don’t care what they claim, of course, but to keep the beta from carrying young, the reiatsu that is wrong kills them quicker. Like I said, it’s poisoning him. Literally. If something isn’t done before long, his mind isn’t going to be the only thing he loses,” he said with a sigh.

“What should we do?” Ulquiorra said with a concerned glance at Ichigo. He was muttering as though talking to someone.

“He has to be claimed,” Szayel said with a sigh. “Otherwise, his reiatsu is going to slowly kill him.”

“Who can do this?” Ulquiorra asked, knowing that Ichigo was important to Aizen.

Szayel reached out and ran his hand over Ichigo’s head. “He has to choose them,” he said with a sigh. “I will have to activate and release the alpha drive in someone, and hope he takes them. If he doesn’t, he’ll try and kill whoever it is. And I’m not sure we can stop him from killing them, no matter how powerful they are.”

Ichigo looked up at him suddenly. “The smell…I don’t want that again…what they did…” he muttered and tried to pull his arms from the restraints. “They took…in there…”

Szayel moved around and put his hands on Ichigo’s face. “Hey, no one can take what you do not give from now on, okay?” Szayel whispered to him. “That’s not something we do. No matter what Kurotsuchi did, he didn’t do the right things. We are not animals; we are Arrancar.”

Ichigo nodded and looked at Ulquiorra. “You have the smell,” he whispered to him. “Like Grimmy. And Nnoi.”

Szayelaporro nodded. “They’re alphas, aren’t they? You can already smell it even without me activating the full release of the pheromones.”

“Alphas…” Ichigo said. “They hurt us.”

“Ichigo, no one will hurt you, I promise,” Szayel said with a smile at him. “I won’t let them, and neither will Aizen-sama.”

Ichigo frowned. “I like your smell too,” he muttered. “Smells like ink and flowers,” he whispered with a smile now.

“Ink and flowers?” Szayel said with a smirk. “What about Ulquiorra?”

Ichigo turned and looked at him. “He smells like…tears and night air.”

“And what about Grimmjow and Nnoitra?” Szayelaporro asked with a glance over at the confused Ulquiorra.

“Grimmy…smells like rainfall and musk…and Nnoitra smells like grass and ginger…” he said with a look toward the door. “Puppy smells like lavender and green tea…” he said as he smiled again.

“Puppy?” Ulquiorra said with a frown. “Starrk?”

Ichigo nodded. “Yeah. The third smells like salt and wind.”

“Interesting, so all the Espada are alphas…” Ulquiorra said with a nod at Szayel. “It makes sense, however. Great power. Does Aizen-sama smell like anything?” he asked with curiosity.

Ichigo smiled then. “Master? Master…he smells…like safety and warmth…” he said before he looked away, eyes beginning to flicker again as his focus waned.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Zangetsu cowered in the small bubble they had found. They made it through the ichor and now were underneath the vast amount that now spanned over them.

“Don’t want to do that again,” Shiro gasped out as they separated into two entities again. Shiro fell to the ground and heaved deep breaths.

“It was difficult,” Zangetsu said as he examined their location.

It was a bubble like space at the very center of Ichigo’s inner world. All around them, the clear barrier that encased it shimmered and sparked as the ichor tried to invade this last vestige of sanity. Luckily, it was larger than either of the spirits had anticipated. Shiro stood up and looked out.

“Is that…the other reiatsu?” he asked as he watched bubbles of odd colored lightning fall in the ichor.

“It is. The ones that are flashing are causing the damage,” Zangetsu said as they watched as a bright blue ball exploded on the shield and made it shiver. “Unless we can get rid of that, we’re going to lose even this small bubble of protection. The Ichor doesn’t try to encroach on it, but if those explosions manage to crack this bubble, it will seep into this space, and we’ll die.

Shiro stood and looked around. “Where are we anyway?” he asked as he turned around the spot. “This has to be Ichigo’s safest place,” he said as he realized where they were.

It was a copy of Ichigo’s room from the World of the Living. The bed, the small desk, the closet where Rukia had slept…it was all there. And in the center of it, a photo lay on the ground. Shiro walked over and picked it up and nearly sobbed. He didn’t, but very nearly, and he handed it to Zangetsu. The other spirit took it and sighed deeply. It was a picture of Ichigo with his friends, Orihime, Chad, Uryu, Rukia, and Renji. Then, when it was tilted, it changed to a picture of Ichigo with his father and his sisters. Both images were cracked. Zangetsu saw Shiro was struggling with a lot of things, and he also understood that he was desperately fighting to hold onto sanity himself.

“Shiro, we will help him. You have to let the hollow instincts go. That reiatsu has to be destroyed, and there’s only one way to have that happen. You know this,” Zangetsu said. He knew that Shiro didn’t want to do this. The thought of having anyone touch his King again made Shiro sick, and Zangetsu knew why. No one loved Ichigo as much he did.

“I know it, but I don’t fuckin’ like it!” he snapped. “Fine,” he muttered and closed his eyes.

A slight red glow started behind his eyelids and he breathed out long and low. He reached down and grabbed the threads of instinct that were buried there. He pulled them up slowly. His hands rose up above him and a burst of black and red reiatsu floated easily through the bubble and the ichor around them. Shiro sighed and sat down on the floor and crossed his legs.

“I don’t like it,” he muttered to Zangetsu.

“I know, but it must be. Kurotsuchi turned us more hollow than we liked,” Zangetsu said as he watched the barrier around them arc and fizz.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“What do you mean?” Aizen asked as he stood over the bed where Ichigo had passed out.

“I mean, that if we don’t do this, he’s going to die,” Szayelaporro said with a sigh. “I can’t fix it. Alpha reiatsu has to overpower the poisoned reiatsu. It isn’t going to cure his mind, but it might start to release his own reiatsu. What’s happening is a combination of things, Aizen-sama. Any one of these problems would be detrimental, but all of them together…it is slowly killing him.”

“What of the hogyuku?” Aizen asked seriously.

“You might succeed with trying to transform him, but we don’t know the results of trying the Arrancar transformation on something like him. I would rather send him into the attempt without this reiatsu poisoning him. He might simply die during the transformation, if so,” Szayel said with a sigh. “When do you intend to do it?”

“I was hoping soon.”

“Well, I’d deal with this problem before you try,” Szayelaporro said.

“Won’t it cause more problems with his mental state?” Aizen asked with a sigh.

“He says that you smell like safety and warmth,” Szayel said thoughtfully. “And he calls Sexta ‘Grimmy’ and says that he smells like ‘rainfall and musk’. He identified smells for all the Espada, except Segunda, of course, he hasn’t met him yet. I think his instincts are rising to the surface and he’s acknowledging the alphas around him.”

Aizen nodded and unhooked Ichigo from the table slowly. He carefully picked him up and carried him back to their room. He paused at the door and thought to himself. How strange. He thought of it as their room for some reason. He smiled though, glancing down into Ichigo’s sleeping face and felt something surge in his chest. He wrote it off as the hogyuku again. He didn’t realize how right he was, though.

He laid him down in the mound of pillows and sat down beside him to think. Trying to understand what was happening was more difficult than he anticipated. His intentions had been to use the boy and not care what happened to him. However, since he’d come to Las Noches, he hasn’t once done anything save attempt to heal him. His mind had not been on anything else.

He almost jumped when he felt Ichigo’s hand snake into his own. He looked down to see wide brown eyes staring up at him.

“You came back,” he said quietly.

Aizen smiled. “Of course, my dear. I told you I would come back. Are you still afraid that I’ll leave you alone?”

Ichigo nodded slowly. “I don’t want you to leave me alone,” he said and Aizen felt something that he didn’t expect. He leaned forward and kissed Ichigo’s cheek gently.

“I won’t, you’re mine now, and I will keep you safe,” he said with surprising feeling to the statement.

Ichigo looked away from him for a long moment. “But I’m…I can’t…I just want someone…to hold…and…” he said as his breath started to heave in his chest.

Before he thought, Aizen moved and pulled him up into his lap, clutching him against his chest. “Now, I’m here, remember?” he said as he ran hands over his head, loosening the tie in his braid. The long hair tumbled down out of it and cascaded around him as he buried his face in Aizen’s shoulder.

“I’ve tried so hard, Master,” he whispered against him. “We’ve tried…”

“I know, Ichigo,” Aizen said with a smile as he felt Ichigo clutch him tighter.

“I didn’t hurt myself because you said not to,” he said as Aizen realized that he was crying. “I didn’t want you to leave me, so I…I didn’t. Not much, I did a couple times, but it wasn’t bad, I promise, is that okay?” he said and leaned back looking at Aizen with suddenly fearful eyes.

Aizen smiled and put his hand on Ichigo’s face. “Shh, I know you tried your hardest. The Espada told me how well you had done while you were with them.”

Ichigo nodded, eyes flickering out of focus for a moment. “I like…I like them around…”

Aizen smirked. “You do?”

“They smell nice, and it feels nice to smell them…makes me feel warm and hot,” he said quietly. “But not scary like the others did.”

Aizen realized what Ichigo was saying. The alphas that were equal to or greater than his power smelled “nice” to him. The ones that were weaker, and thus should not be able to claim him smelled “scary”, thus triggering the fighting reflex in him. It was honestly fascinating, and a lot more than he had done with the whole understanding of Alpha/beta relations in the hollows. Because they weren’t powerful enough, an inferior rutting Alpha would be destroyed. The Arrancar he had dismembered had been Alphas that were in that phase, and triggered the fearful instinct to destroy them before they tried to get to him. Things were beginning to make more sense now. Mayuri had indeed made Ichigo more hollow than he realized…

“You don’t have to worry about the scary ones, Ichigo. Ever again. If one of the Espada smells nice to you, you can go to them, if you want, my sweet,” he said as he ran his hands down Ichigo’s back.

“But I’m yours…you said…” Ichigo said as he leaned back and to Aizen’s surprise, Ichigo’s eyes were both blown wide. Aizen wasn’t sure if it was an effect of the alphas he’d been around or something else entirely.

“Yes, you are, but I’m not a hollow or Arrancar, I cannot claim you and make you feel better like you need,” he said with a soft smile. “The others that Mayuri used, they were too weak for you, and it left you with a poison inside you that is hurting you. An Espada that smells nice can help you with it. If you prefer a female alpha to aid you, I can ask Harribel. I am sure she would not mind claiming a fourth beta in need.”

Ichigo looked at him with eyes that were showing the barest rims of brown. “But…I love you, Master. You saved me and I love you so much,” he whispered and Aizen realized that his own mouth had gone dry. “I want master to love me,” he said. “Make us…me…feel something other than pain.”

“I don’t know that you’re able to make such a choice, my dear, you…” Aizen began.

“I’m clear right now,” he said and locked eyes on Aizen’s. “Being…being around the Espada helps a little. It doesn’t last long, it won’t…but I know…I know I need something else besides…”

Ichigo gasped then as Aizen slid his hand down the front of his hakama and hummed. “So it would seem,” Aizen muttered as he rubbed his hand over the extremely aroused front of Ichigo’s body.

“Please, let me feel it…while I’m…not out of my mind…” he gasped as Aizen flipped him onto his back. “Before…before I go to them…I want you…you…”

Aizen didn’t waste a moment as he began at his throat, licking and sucking down the lines and curves over his collarbones. His hands undid the obi and pushed his coat open. He trailed kisses and biting sucks down his middle to the soft line of reddish orange hair that ran down from his belly button. He blew on the skin under his navel and watched as Ichigo’s flesh pricked in gooseflesh and he exhaled above him. Aizen slipped his hands down over Ichigo’s hips and slid the hakama down his legs.

Ichigo wasn’t sure how it happened, his head spun and he was covered in a feeling like water washing over him. He heard the voices but they weren’t the same, these were the voices he should be hearing. It was like a bubble bursting and setting the world to right for a bright moment.

Still, he jerked as he felt Aizen’s hand under him and then sliding insistent fingers into him slowly. He arched at the feeling of him pressing into him. Ichigo moaned and locked his eyes on Aizen as he stared down at him. He couldn’t help the desperate moans that left his lips as he ached everywhere to be touched, to be held, just to be for a moment… He needed to feel like he wasn’t alone. He needed to know that he was a part of someone else.

Aizen hadn’t intended this to go this way, but he had no choice now, the debauched Ichigo was letting him know without a doubt that he wanted him to make him feel something, and he was intending to. He didn’t have the patience, and honestly, Ichigo didn’t have the sanity, for it to take too much longer. He worked a third finger into him, making him flinch under him, and began stroking the tight muscles to coax them into loosening. Ichigo’s body was so soft and warm inside, the quivering flesh clenching against his fingers eagerly. Aizen smiled as he slid his hand from his entrance and positioned his leaking arousal against his body. He looked at Ichigo again, sliding himself against him gently. He needed to see that he was clear. He had no idea why it mattered; he’d originally intended to take him whenever he wanted, but he hadn’t. He wouldn’t.

“Ichigo, I won’t do this if you don’t want me to,” he said, and surprisingly, he meant those words. Again he didn’t note the pulsing feeling in his own chest.

“Ah, please, Sōsuke…” Ichigo gasped as he tried to press against his cock, both hands fisted in the sheets and pillows.

That was all it took as Aizen slid his hardness into the soft and pliant body under him. It took a moment for him to realize he was actually doing this for Ichigo, not only himself. He felt the heat and constriction and it felt better than anything should have ever felt. He leaned forward and grasped Ichigo tightly. He felt his breathing on his shoulder hotly. He tried to stay still until he felt Ichigo’s body flinch and buck back on him. Aizen breathed out and then leaned back up, pushing Ichigo’s legs open wider so that he could watch as he slipped down into him. Ichigo’s cock twitched every time he slid into him deeper and he was wondering if he was going to orgasm like this…

Aizen growled under his breath, though, unable to stand the slowness any more as he felt Ichigo’s body clench down on him painfully. Ichigo was saying something, but it was so garbled, Aizen couldn’t understand what it was. He began to thrust deep and hard into him and smiled as Ichigo reacted to each movement with a whimper, a moan, or a whine, and sometimes a muttered request for “deeper”, “faster”, or “harder”. Aizen couldn’t hold it much longer, though, so he grabbed Ichigo’s leaking member and began stroking him in time with his own plunging thrusts. Ichigo didn’t last much longer as he arched and cried out. His body clenched hard onto Aizen and he growled and thrust deeper and harder a few more times before he felt himself go over into release.

Neither of them noticed the slight flare of bluish light that surrounded them briefly because their eyes were closed. It was felt, however mildly, by them. It was mistaken as a part of the such activities.   Aizen tumbled over onto the bed beside him, panting for breath and surprised at himself. He pulled Ichigo into his chest and held him as both their hearts began to slow. Ichigo turned over and grabbed Aizen’s face. He pulled him into a passionate kiss full of teeth and tongue that descended into a languid thing as he leaned away from him.

“Thank you for that, Master…” he muttered as his eyes closed and he slipped into sleep.

Aizen smiled, running a hand over Ichigo’s head slowly. He frowned briefly, wondering just what the hell was going on. Then, the thought passed and he pulled covers over them both, and clutching Ichigo to his chest, and fell asleep with him.

* * *


	5. When They Claim Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this is super short and first drafty. Mostly because I'm going back since I'm at five chapters to do some edits. Some of my thinking has changed, so there's some corrections in previous chapters.
> 
> The idea is that the end of each chapter, starting at four, will be a look at the Present. Eventually, Ichigo's timeline will catch up to the shinigami and Agarthan Arrancar, about the time that they encounter each other again. But that's another few chapters. Enjoy!

 

[Year 11, Month 3, Day 18]

 

Grimmjow blinked at Aizen for a long moment. “You want to what?”

“I want Szayelaporro to activate the hollow mating instinct in the Espada. Those that are willing, of course. When I do, of course, anyone involved will start to rut. Hopefully, Ichigo will choose one of you to help with his…problem,” Aizen said almost nonchalantly as Ichigo sat curled into his lap sleeping against his chest. They were in the middle of the “throne” room.

“Okay, wait a minute, I thought that’s what caused this problem, that crazy fucking Shinigami doing that to him,” Grimmjow said with a frown.

“Yes, but he mated him with lower hollows. The addition of their spiritual energy has corrupted his own. After what Mayuri did, Ichigo can’t quell the instincts. They are on, fully, and there’s no way to get rid of them now.”

Grimmjow stared. “So you want one of us to fuck him?”

“Or more than one, depends on how interested he is in you,” Aizen said as he threaded fingers through the long hair that cascaded down Ichigo’s back. He hadn’t braided it yet today. He’d been far too sleepy for too much of the day. “He’s dying, Sexta. I can’t use the hogyuku because the results are unpredictable in his condition.”

Grimmjow, despite his words, felt every bit of blood rush to his cock. “Ah, okay,” he said. Aizen tipped his head to the side and smirked at him.

“That was easier than I thought to convince you of…I think you lust after him as well, don’t you?”

Grimmjow snorted. “Whatever,” he muttered and cleaned his ear thoughtlessly with his pinky as he looked away.

“Go see Szayelaporro, along with any others who wish to participate. There is no guarantee he’ll choose any one of you over another. I’d like him to have as much choice as possible, that way he’s less likely to try and kill one of you.”

Grimmjow nodded and headed off to gather the others. He saw Ulquiorra on the way. “Yo, you wanna fuck the crazy as fucking Shinigami?”

The placid Cuarta frowned and stared. “I do not know what you mean…”

“Octavo is going to trigger that heat thing and get us more instinct…whatever the fuck. Anyway, Aizen-sama wants us to go as many as possible so he gets a good selection,” he said with a shrug and walked away. He did note that Ulquiorra turned and went toward the labs.

Grimmjow saw the next one he was looking for, Hallibel. “Hey, you helping with the whole fucked up alpha/beta mess with the boy?”

She shook her head. “I’ll decline. I do not wish to take another beta at this time,” she said stoically. “Apacci is heavy with young right now, and I sense Franceska’s heat approaching.”

Grimmjow nodded, wandering down the halls until he found Nnoitra practically…well no, he was actually fucking Tesla against the wall outside one of the gardens.

“Hey, you want to try and claim Aizen’s pet?” he asked. Nnoitra looked over at him, not even pausing as he bounced Tesla’s head into the wall.

“Sure.”

“Octavo’s lab, he’s setting shit up, so bust yer nut and get over there,” he said and wandered away. He snickered as he heard Tesla let out a near scream and a few seconds later Nnoitra caught up to him tying his obi.

“What? Just figured I’d walk along. Tesla’s gonna be fucking sleeping for an hour after that fucking,” he said with a smirk. “Little bitch isn’t even in heat, but he’s always fucking horny.”

“And you aren’t?” Grimmjow muttered as the got to Primera’s door. He knocked and Lilynette answered.

“The fuck you want?” she growled.

“Tell Starrk that Octavo’s trying to save Aizen’s pet. Need some alphas involved to try and claim him. Tell him to get his lazy ass up and come down to the lab,” he said and wandered away with Nnoitra.

“So what the fuck is this anyway?” Nnoitra asked as he wandered down to the lab with him. “What about Segunda?”

Grimmjow groaned. “Fuck, forgot that bastard, he’s around here,” he muttered as they walked down to his castle. He knocked on the door again.

“What is it?” came the growling voice of Estrella. She glared at Nnoitra. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Peace, octopussy,” he muttered and looked away. “Ain’t here for trouble. Just tagging along with this bastard.”

She growled at him then looked at Grimmjow. “What is it?”

“Segunda sober?” he asked with a sigh. He swore, that guy spent more time in a bottle than anywhere else.

“Somewhat.”

“Well, we’re trying to save the Shinigami brat. So all us Espada alphas are going down to see if he wants any of us. Thought I’d let him know, so he could come give it a shot.”

“Alright, I’ll send him. Szayelaporro’s lab?” she asked.

“Yeah, got the rest, ‘cept Novena, but he’s not interested in fucking, and damn Zommari is one of his ‘quests for enlightenment’, in other words stoned off his ass and staring at the wall,” he said with a shrug as the turned.

Nnoitra stuck his tongue out at her but she noted that there was far less condensation in his tone today. Interesting, she thought as she went in to try and wake Jatya up.

Grimmjow got to the lab with Nnoitra to find Ulquiorra and Starrk waiting already. He looked around. “Excited at the prospect of fucking Aizen’s toy, are we?” he muttered.

“It intrigues me,” Ulquiorra said as he stared at him.

Starrk only yawned. “Lilynette said to come here so I did. Is that what is happening?”

“I told you…” they heard Estrella say as she escorted the Segunda Espada into the room. She glanced about. “Here. Deal with him. I’m done for the day,” she muttered and stormed out.

Jatya stared around at them, and they could see he was slightly inebriated still. He was an interesting looking Arrancar, one of the later ones that Aizen had used the hogyuku on, specifically to replace Barragan in power. He was tall and generally handsome looking, lean and lanky with a pair of tusks near his mouth, and deep colored skin. His eyes were vibrant and blue. Granted, at the moment they were bloodshot and rheumy looking. He had a strange looking crown on his head that was perhaps the most attracting feature that he held, though his long black hair was tied back at the base of his neck.

“Fancy you showing up,” Szayelaporro said with a snort.

“Estrella said I was needed,” he said with a sigh.

“Okay, so is Zommari showing up?” Szayelaporro asked as he looked around.

Grimmjow shook his head. “You know him and his attempt to reach his enlightenment and shit. It’s a wonder he comes out to go to meetings.”

“Shall we get this started?” Szayelaporro said as he looked around.

“How…exactly…do we do this?” Grimmjow asked, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at him.

Szayelaporro led them into a large room and pulled the door shut. “Since there’s more than one of us, the most expeditious way of distributing the substance is gaseous form. You should feel nothing, to be honest. But, whenever we come into the room where Aizen and the beta are, things should become quite…feral.”

He leaned over and pulled down a lever. There was a hissing sound as a cloud of vapor fell around them. Grimmjow and Starrk’s sensitive noses picked up the smell in the mist. It wasn’t strong, and honestly, only they picked up on it. After a few minutes of standing around the hissing stopped and Szayelaporro nodded. “Alright, now, I’ve had Aizen take him to one of the larger areas with some space. After all, we’ve got the six of us. Here’s hoping he takes at least one of us along the way.”

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ichigo was seated on the sofa in the room. It wasn’t a place he’d been before, but Aizen was there and he was okay with that. He looked up as the door opened again and a wafting group of smells hit him full force. He whined low and jumped up and ran to Aizen, grabbing him and burying his face in his shoulder.

“Master…” he groaned and Aizen grinned. He slid a hand down his front of found him aroused and dripping wet already. “Hot…”

“Seems it worked, Octavo,” Aizen said as he saw six of his Espada had come to help in this. Szayel was staring at where Ichigo squirmed against Aizen uncomfortably.

“Yeah, the smell…” Grimmjow said as he stared at him, unable to control his own body’s reaction. “I mean, I smelled it before, I just thought it was his smell…but its…so sweet…”

Ichigo heard Grimmjow’s voice and looked up. “Grimmy,” he muttered and slipped off Aizen’s lap to the floor. He looked at him then crawled on hands and knees toward him slowly. “Grimmy,” he said again as Grimmjow knelt in front of him. Grimmjow reached out and cupped his face and Ichigo nuzzled into his hand with a near purr in his throat. He licked at Grimmjow’s hand for a second before looking up at him. He looked beside him where Ulquiorra was standing, and despite himself, Ulquiorra couldn’t stop himself from knelling beside Grimmjow and offering his own hand to Ichigo. Again he seemed to smell at him, then licked thoughtfully at his hand, as though tasting him. “Ulquie,” he muttered and crawled closer to him, head butting him with a grin.

“Two acceptable,” Aizen said as he watched him move toward Starrk now. “That is better than I had hoped…” he muttered as he smiled to himself. It might work after all. His biggest fear had been Ichigo would reject them all.

Ichigo seemed to be completely enraptured now with Starrk, who knelt down now. Ichigo practically face planted into his crotch. “Puppy,” he muttered as Starrk put both hands down and pulled his face upward, receiving the cursory licks from him in response. “Smells nice,” he muttered and seemed to follow his nose toward where Nnoitra was standing with Szayel.

“Nnoi…” Ichigo muttered now and moved toward him now. He knelt and Szayel knelt beside him as the both reached for him instinctually. Nnoitra remembered this from before he became an Arrancar, the ritual of acknowledgement and acceptance of potential alphas. The act was somewhat symbolic, the beta taking in the alpha’s smell first, then confirming it by tasting their scent gland. In the bipedal Arrancar it seemed that was the wrist and hand area. It might have also been in the neck, but Ichigo was in the extremely submissive positon at the moment, due to the overpowering release from the six of them. If he had been turned into an Arrancar already by the hogyuku, he would have perhaps been capable of carrying young, but he was not quite that hollow…yet.

Ichigo sniffed at his hand then licked a stripe up Nnoitra’s palm with a purring sound. He looked at Szayel and his eyes were almost drunk looking. No doubt the pheromones he was under were causing a lot of it. He nuzzled into his long fingered hand and smiled. “Szay…” he muttered and turned enough to lick across his inner wrist. Szayel felt the throbbing throughout his body that he had not sensed in a very long time.

Then, the strangest event happened so far. He turned to Jatya and he let out a sound that was somewhere between a screech and a whimper. Jatya, at the same time was staring, eyes wide and frozen in place.

“Hmm, no…not…” Ichigo said trying to back away from him. “No, no…”

Grimmjow moved then putting his hands on Ichigo’s shoulders as he sat back. “Ichigo, what is it?”

“He…was there…but I can’t…I have to…” he whined.

Grimmjow glanced at Aizen and back at the frozen Jatya. “The crazy researcher…you were with him, I remember you saying that he’d done things to you before you got back here where Aizen-sama found you…” he whispered. “You were one of the ones he put into the cage during his experiemtns with Ichigo.”

“I…he did so many things…then before he…he did the worst things…he said I had to go in there…and I couldn’t stop myself…it just…whatever he did…” Jatya whispered as he stepped forward. “Just reject me, please,” he whispered as he knelt and gave Ichigo his hand.

Ichigo flinched, nearly falling, saved by Grimmjow holding him up from behind. “No, I have…to…”

It took a moment but soon, the instincts overpowered Ichigo’s fear and he pressed against Jatya’s hand with his face, breathing in his scent of fragrant spice and rushing water. He couldn’t stop himself from licking across his wrist with a rumbling purr in his throat. Jatya jerked back like shocked at the fact he’d accepted him.

Aizen stood up then and came over. “Grimmjow,” he said. “Stay with him. The others will overwhelm him if they stay. Bring him to me when you’ve claimed him, we shall go from there,” Aizen said with a nod and led the others from the room.

“Wait, but…” he started to say that Starrk should be first, as Primera, but it seemed that Ichigo had made his choice of him as his first alpha.

“Grimmy,” he muttered and turned and threw both arms around Grimmjow’s shoulders. “So hot,” he muttered. “Too hot…”

“I know, Ichi, I know,” he said and picked him up carefully. Ichigo’s legs wrapped around him and his face was buried in the crook of his neck. He shifted him and slid his hands under his ass and took him to the small bedroom in this larger suite. He dropped him but before he could think, Ichigo had sprung up and grabbed his hakama and was pulling them off rapidly. Grimmjow smirked and stilled his hands.

“Hang on,” he said and saw the desperation in his eyes, the primal need, and he realized, he knew. “You know if you don’t do this you’re gonna die, don’t ya?”

“I feel it,” he said, sitting uncomfortably for a second and shrugging out of his jacket and kusodo quickly. “The poison, it rains and storms and its going to end the rain, turning it to blood…” He panted undoing his obi with fumbling fingers. “Hot, so hot,” he muttered as he managed to get out of all of them. “Make it go away,” he moaned as he reached between his legs and started fingering himself desperately. “Hot…”

“Oh hell,” Grimmjow said and in one move had him on his back, legs pressed to his chest. He’d wanted to go slow, but seeing him like that… He gasped as he thrust down into him, sliding easily. “Fuck, it’s wet…” he gasped. “Fucking wet…beta…yeah…” he muttered. “Didn’t expect that,” he gasped. He knew that he was more hollow than they thought, but the fact that this much had been possible by his hollow.

Ichigo made and a strange sound, like a gurgle and Grimmjow’s head snapped to see eyes staring at him. But they weren’t Ichigo’s. They were black and gold. “What the fuck…” he muttered.

“Trying…” the strange higher pitched voice said. “Trying…not…to die…hurry…killing me…” and then Ichigo blinked and his eyes were back to brown and blown wide with lust.

“Grimmy, please…” he muttered and arched. Grimmjow nodded and began working into him deep and fast, reaching down and sliding his hand up and down Ichigo’s dripping length. He moaned loudly as he brought him over quickly, his own end slamming into him with a force he hadn’t felt since his days as an adjunca. He bit down and reached down into himself to pull up the claiming. He deftly flipped Ichigo to his belly and kept himself buried inside him as he emptied. He licked the back of his neck and bit down. When he did, he felt Ichigo orgasm again, and he felt himself reach the second peak as this time, a burst of spiritual pressure ballooned out from them and slammed back in a breath. He tumbled down beside him, instincts driving him to pull Ichigo into his arms and protect him after the claiming was done. He fumbled for covers and pulled them over Ichigo’s shivering form.

He nuzzled into him, feeling the purr erupt from his own throat as he licked languidly at the claiming bite. If this continued, and he mated all the others, he’d be marked by all six of them. As strange as that sounded, Grimmjow remembered that the strongest betas required more than one alpha, else their spiritual power wasn’t dampened, and they might go mad from it.

He felt Ichigo hiccup and he reached around and saw that he was weeping. “Ichi?” he asked and turned him around to face him.

“I can’t…I can’t…it’s not gone,” he wept and Grimmjow understood. He’d helped some, but it wasn’t enough yet.

“I know, babe. I know, but I’m not the only one here that’s going to take care of you,” he whispered as he found himself kissing his head. “We’re going to take care of you, okay? All of us. I promise.”

Ichigo’s shaking soon subsided as he slipped into a restless sleep. Grimmjow found himself clutching him most of the time he slept, just wanting him to be okay.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“It worked, partially,” Szayelaporro said as he looked over the readings. Aizen stood beside him and nodded.

“Partially?”

“Yes, Grimmjow’s pressure was able to overpower some of this foreign reiatsu. His was done properly, through a claiming, the mark and all. Now, the problem is, it has set there, festering and poisoning him for a long time. His madness is making it worse,” he said with a sigh.

“So it will take another claiming by Grimmjow?” he asked.

“No, Grimmjow can only claim him once. It has to be someone else,” he said with a sigh. “I’m afraid…it might take all of us to get rid of this completely. And then…I’m not sure.”

Ichigo was sitting on the floor with a red pencil of some sort and a sheet of paper. Szayeloporra had found that there were a few things he could give Ichigo to encourage him to “behave” during his visits. Sweets of any kind, especially chocolate, were sure thing, and another was any form of red colored writing implement. He looked up, his eyes flickering between them and got up, sniffing the air. “Hmm, tears…” he whispered and walked toward the door.

“Cuarta,” Szayelaporro said. “He must be nearby.”

Aizen nodded and followed as Ichigo walked down the paths until they came to one of the gardens where Ulquiorra was sitting in the grass. Aizen realized that as soon as Ichigo came in, he started stripping off his jacket and kusodo, dropping them behind him. Ulquiorra looked up and even Aizen saw the sudden dilation of his eyes. He nodded.

“I’ll leave him with you, Cuarta,” he said and left the garden.

Ichigo undid the obi and stepped out of his pants and dropped to his knees in front of Ulquiorra. “Ulquie…please…it’s hot…and it’s not gone, help me make it go away…” he muttered.

Ulquiorra had never experienced such a rush of emotion. He was stripping his pants before another second had passed. He dropped to sit on the floor cross-legged and he pulled Ichigo down onto his lap. He adjusted and slid easily inside him. He was slightly surprised at the dampness and ease, but he supposed his body was made for this. He wasn’t exaggerating either, his body was hot, almost feverish. Ichigo was covered with a full body blush it seemed and Ulquiorra gasped as he held him onto his thin lap and began rocking upward into him. Ichigo clasped his legs around behind his hips and held onto his shoulders. Ulquiorra wrapped his hands around the small of Ichiog’s back and thrust upward in such a fervor that he was surprised that Ichigo was lasting. Ulquiorra felt the end rushing toward them. This wasn’t a long, sensual encounter, no this was a hard fucking to get through the moment. Neither of them had any desire to make this last longer than necessary. Ulquiorra gasped as he felt Ichigo’s orgasm hit him, his own seconds behind. He growled and leaned over and bit down into Ichigo’s neck. The claiming hit him harder than the orgasm, slamming through him and bursting outward in an outpouring of power. A few minutes later, Ulquiorra sat quietly with Ichigo still in his lap, bodies still joined, and rocking him as he came down.

“Not gone,” Ichigo gasped and Ulquiorra felt the tears wetting his kusodo.

“Shhh,” he said, surprising himself. “We will help you, I promise that,” he said as he hugged him close and licked the second claiming mark, his own.

Ulquiorra had no idea what was happening. But as he put Ichigo down while he dressed himself, then Ichigo, he meant those words. Ichigo was asleep now, and he headed back to his castle with him to rest. He wanted him to be happy. And if possible, he wanted him to carry his young one day. So he would treat him as a treasure.

That’s what a beta was, after all. A treasured creature that should be adored by all who claimed him. And protected at all costs. Even from meddling Shinigami.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“It’s working,” Shiro said as he looked out into the waters that surrounded their bubble of safety.

Zangetsu nodded. “Yes, see, the blue and green energy is destroying the poisoning energies. It isn’t enough, yet. It would not have worked if you hadn’t activated the hollow heat.”

“I know, but I don’t have to like it. King don’t deserve to have any of this shit happen, but I’ll do what I have to do to save him,” he muttered and sat down, picking up the photo again.

“What will you do when you can talk to him again?” Zangetsu asked.

“That I fucking love him. That’s all. I love him more than I can ever say. He is my everything, my King, my love. There is nothing but him, to me anyways,” he said with a sigh.

Zangetsu nodded. “Make sure you tell him that. He is our world, of course,” he said with a sigh.

Shiro touched the faces in the pictures. “How could they betray him?”

“People are sometimes blinded to the truth when emotion gets in the way.”

“That doesn’t make fucking sense. King did everything for them. Everything. And in the end, all it took was one person to destroy everything we were and could have been. He’s never going to recover, not fully. And he’s going to turn him into an Arrancar,” Shiro said with a sigh. “Once all that is fixed, you know that’s what he’s going to do. He’ll use the hogyuku and I don’t know what happens to us.”

“I know, but I do not feel we will be lost. I simply feel that we will become closer to Ichigo than we have ever been. When the hogyuku touches us, it will react to what we are, what we want, and what Ichigo wants. No matter the madness that infects him, Ichigo cannot change who he is. It will not happen. There is no possible way that the hogyuku will not recognize this.”

Shiro nodded. “I’m scared though,” he said as a crack of lightning nearly split the bubble. The black ichor slid down the outside. “I don’t know what to do about his madness.”

“First we must survive, then we might heal his madness.”

Shiro nodded. It was the only way.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Present

[Year 11, Month 6, Day 3]

Rukia was woken up by yelling. She sat up and looked around blearily as the huge Arrancar that had captured them came over, two struggling black clad bodies over his shoulders facing behind him. He came over and looked down at Rukia and the others.

“They are yours,” he said in a deep, reverberating voice as he flopped the two Shinigami onto the mat and turned and left. Rukia realized it was Hisagi and Kira. They looked somewhat stunned and were looking around at the others.

Renji was sitting against the wall, cleaning Zabimaru, and Uryu had gone off with one of the other Arrancar to talk about archery. Chad was helping a child Arrancar put together some sort of puzzle a little ways from where she had been sleeping. Orihime had been helping them.

“Kira-kun!” she said and came over to them. “And Hisagi-kun!”

“What…the hell…” Hisagi said as he stood up.

“Let me explain,” Rukia said with a smile. “These are…um…I guess you could say free Arrancar? They’re all sorts here, and they made this city. They’re pretty mistrustful of Shinigami as well as Aizen’s people. Some of them escaped from him,” she said as she heard someone shout. The all turned to see an Arrancar come literally waddling from one of the adjacent curtained areas followed by Imelda.

“Dima! You get back here and lay down!” she said as he waddled over toward where the Shinigami were staying.

“I want to walk around, Imelda! I’m pregnant, not dying!” he growled at her. He looked to see he had a rapt audience. “What? You’ve never seen a pregnant person before!” he snapped.

Rukia walked up carefully. “I’m sorry, it is just where we’re from, males cannot bear children, and it is surprising.” The others approached with her.

Dima brushed a hand over his reddish gold hair and flipped it over his shoulder. “Well, that’s ridiculous,” he said. “Why wouldn’t they?”

Imelda sighed. “Dima, you know that the rules are different with the Shinigami, now please, you’re going to have the children soon…”

“And that’s wonderful, this is misery!” he said, laying a hand over his forehead near his mask fragment that appeared to look like a headband. “To not be able to run and zip around, this is walking death for me!”

Imelda sighed. “You are so dramatic. You haven’t been pregnant forever.”

“Feels that way!” he groused as he pulled at the loose gown he was wearing. “Though I do like the pretty gowns. I’d rather be running through the sands!”

“I’m confused,” Kira said.

Imelda smiled. “I’m Imelda, this is my mated beta, Dima. He’s due with the young within days, and he is very stubborn and will not remain resting.”

“I’m rested out!” he snapped, crossing his thin arms over his chest. “You would have to be powerful enough to give me two.”

“I know, and I’m sorry,” she said with a sigh.

“I…males get pregnant here?” Hisagi asked with wide eyes.

Imelda smiled softly. “Let me get Dima back to bed, I can alreasdy tell his energy is waning,” she said and smiled at the grumpy Arrancar.

“If that werne’t true, I’d stay right here,” he muttered as Imelda led him back into the curtained area. A few second later they heard light snoring.

Imelda came back and smiled. “You seem surprised, and I spoke some of this to your friends yesterday, but I suppose a full explanation might help matters, as soon Dima will have our young, and I believe that there are more than a couple in heat right now. As you have seen, they don’t much care where they go at it.”

She motioned them back into the area they’d been in and sat down. The Shinigami and Orihime and Chad sat down to listen. “You see, Arrancar, all hollows, really, are creatures of instinct. We have animals inside us, and those animals are part of what makes use act like this. Unlike others, we are collections of souls, consumed over and over as we evolve. Now, when we evolve, either naturally, or artificially like the Shinigami Aizen has done, those instincts are dampened, and if we desire, we can suppress them. This is why the Espada up in Las Noches do not have problems, to I would assume they are all alphas anyway. Alphas are the dominant of us. Betas are the submissives. Only Betas my carry young.”

“How can you carry young? You just said you’re collections of souls?” Kira asked, extremely curious now.

“We do not make life, we simply give shape to a soul within us. So in essence, Dima is carrying two souls that I have passed into him via my claiming of him. The gender of an Arrancar doesn’t matter, only alpha or beta,” she said with a gentle smile.

“But…males aren’t equipped with…um…birth things…” Hisagi said.

“Neither are female hollows. Our outside shape appears to be the gender we present, however, internally, there is no mechanism for having children as humans or even Shinigami do. Our young grow in a chamber of reiatsu, the spiritual pressure making a place for the young to incubate. When it is time to birth them, the beta’s spiritual energy creates a birth canal of sorts that allows the young to exit into the world. Some more primitive hollows have to cut themselves open to retrieve the young, but more advanced hollows do not have to do this,” she said with a smile.

“So two females or two males can have babies?” Orihime said with a smile.

“Indeed, they can,” Imelda said with a smile. She was about to continue when there was a wail and she sighed. “Andresta,” she muttered and looked up in time for the hyena Arrancar to throw himself prostrate at her feet.

“Imelda! Kill me, I do not deserve to live,” he wailed.

“What happened?” she asked as she patted the back of his head. She looked up to see Zeboim following him with an annoyed expression.

“He had another flashback while he slept. It must have been a terrible one, he has been impossible to calm. I wanted him to go to medical but he insisted on seeing you,” he said as he leaned against a pillar nearby.

“Andresta, you are fine, safe, and so is everyone else…” she said gently.

“No, I was there again, in the cage and there was blood and screaming and I just want to die before I see what I did again!” he said, not lifting his head.

“Andresta. Stop this. Your death will not erase what has happened.”

“What happened?” Kira asked with a frown.

Andresta looked up sharply. “What happened? What happened, you ask?” he said and crawled over to Kira and snarled at him. “Your crazy researcher Shinigami is what happened! I can’t sleep without dreaming about what he did to me…what he made me do! What I did to that poor beta…” he wailed. “The precious, precious beta…” he whispered and sat back on his heels. “So precious…”

“Andresta. He is up in Las Noches, and you know it. He is not dead,” Imelda said.

“He may as well be! After what I…what we…” he choked and started sobbing into his hands.

“I don’t understand,” Hisagi said. “Something Kurotsuchi-taichou did?”

Rukia nodded. “Andresta was one of Kurotsuchi-taichou’s hollow test subjects. He…he tried to use them to research the hollow mating practices. He…he didn’t know how it worked thought. And he did something really bad.”

“Really unmentionable,” Zeboim said with a shake of his head. “A powerful beta kills any alphas that dare approach them that are not powerful enough. An alpha’s reiatsu must overpower a beta’s in order to make a proper claim. If an alpha that is not powerful enough is mated with a beta, it causes some extremely bad things. It eventually kills the beta because the weaker alpha’s reiatsu just remains in their spirit, slowly poisoning them.”

“So he put you in with a more powerful beta?” Kira asked.

“He did, and now he’s up in Las Noches, and he’s seen me, and he was so scared and I thought he was going to attack me, but he couldn’t because I claimed him, even though he should have killed me…the instincts are all wrong and he is so precious and beautiful…and I could only dream of claiming such a lovely beta…” he moaned.

“Yeah, well, he’s sort of crazy now,” Zeboim said with a sigh. “Your reiatsu didn’t help that, I’d imagine. Though I’d imagine being repeatedly mated by hollows that he should have killed was part of why he lost his mind like that. The Espada, though, I know they are trying to help him. I’ve felt their release of reiatsu several times over the last few months.”

“Wait, what?” Rukia asked, looking at Zeboim.

“Yes,” Imelda said. “If a beta is somehow incapacity, allowing a weaker alpha to claim them, like the one that Andresta took wrongfully, and the reiatsu begins to poison them, it can be…dissipated or replaced, but a stronger alpha’s reiatsu. It takes a claiming or two to do it, if not more than two, depending on how deep the poisoning goes in the beta.”

“So the Espada…they’ve…to him?” Rukia asked with wide eyes.

“What did you expect them to do with a powerful beta in their midst?” Zeboim asked. “Unless your traitor Shinigami wanted him to die, they had little choice. It was your researcher that did this, not any of us. Remember that,” he added and sighed. “Andresta, let’s go to medical. Zadie will see to you again,” he said and drug the other Arrancar to his feet.

Kira and Hisagi exchanged a glance. “I don’t understand, who is he talking about?” Hisagi asked, fearing the answer.

Rukia sighed. “Who do you think? Who did Kurotsuchi-taichou have access to that he could do any experiment he wanted to do with none of us saying a word?” she said bitterly and walked away from them to the corner.

“Wait, he did what?” Hisagi said.

Renji looked at him. “He’s completely mad, Hisagi. Completely. We ran into him, before the Arrancar here found us. He fights like a possessed creature. He…he let me stab him through the shoulder just so I’d run my Zanpakutō into Rukia. Then he giggled about it, and he was calling Aizen his Master…” he said quietly. “As much as I want to hate Aizen,” he said as he crossed his arms. “I…I hate myself more. We asked…what he’d done to him…and Aizen said he hadn’t done anything except try to fix him…” Renji bit his lip. “And after what I saw, I believe him.”

* * *


	6. When Healing Begins

 

[Year 11, Month 3, Day 19]

Aizen held Ichigo in his lap as he sat against the head of his lush bed and looked out over into the room. He was restless, tossing and turning, and muttering things that were disturbing, to say the least. Even Aizen was hard pressed not to be bothered by some of the things that came from Ichigo during his less lucid times. It was so strange for Aizen, though. He threaded his fingers through the long strands of hair and found himself smiling at it. Such strength wrapped in fragility. There was a poetic nature to the idea that such a powerful creature could only be brought low by his own loved ones. He hummed to himself and was thoughtful until he shifted in his lap.

“Water pours,” Ichigo muttered and opened his eyes suddenly locking eyes with Aizen.

Aizen saw that he wasn’t lucid at all. His eyes were unfocused and flickering around his face. He sighed and felt him shudder in his hands. “Water…it pours down inside, and I can’t stop it…” he said as he crawled up and straddled Aizen’s lap suddenly.

“Water?” Aizen asked with a slight frown as he adjusted him so his legs were fully supported Ichigo’s weight.

During his sleeping, he’d become wrapped up in a sheet and now it drooped off one bare shoulder and Aizen could see the first of the claiming marks. He moved his fingers up and touched the wound gently. Ichigo’s breath stilled and he held it for a moment. He blinked and looked at Aizen for a second before Aizen realized he was crying.

“Ichigo?” he asked, putting a hand against his face. Ichigo turned into it and licked across his palm.

“I want you to claim me…” he said morosely. “Master…you love me? Right?” he asked, eyes flickering still.

Aizen reached up with his other hand and gripped both sides of Ichigo’s face. “Oh, my dear, of course.”

And to his surprise, Aizen realized that he wasn’t lying. He cares about what happened to him now. At first, it had been a power play. It had been simple. A way to gain power, but somehow, it was changing. He felt complete with Ichigo near him, and his pain genuinely distressed him. He’d never thought this could happen. Ichigo was a vehicle, much the same as Momo and Toshiro and Ukitake… He realized with startling clarity that in the last few weeks his thoughts had been centered on Ichigo and Ichigo alone.

“My dear, what do you mean that you want me to claim you? We’ve been together already,” he said as he brushed one hand over his head.

“Like this,” he said and pointed to the mark. “Like this, not like…I need this!” he exclaimed and scrambled off the bed.

Ichigo was suddenly frantic as he wrestled free of the sheet and ran to the mirror that was nearby. He lifted his eyes and locked onto his reflection.

“Who are you?” he whispered to it.

He flinched when Aizen put hands on his shoulders. “It is just you,” he answered him.

“It’s not, that’s not…not…who am I now?” he gasped out, eyes roving his body.

The claiming marks were stark in contrast to his pallid skin. It wasn’t the color of Shiro’s skin, but it was a lot closer than it had been before. He reached up and ran his fingers down his cheeks, fingers shaking. He wanted to digs his nails into the flesh. He wanted to make the blood pour down like tears. It was all the same. Tears and water and blood…all was life, and he was dying…

“Ichigo,” Aizen said and ran his hands up the outside of Ichigo’s bare arms. “These, these are your arms, they are strong and the will wield your Zanpakutō again, and you will be stronger than you ever have been.

Ichigo shivered at the touch as he moved his fingers around to his stomach. He ran his hands up the flat plane of his belly and over his protruding ribs. It was a mass of scar tissue, more pinkish than skin colored for the most part. “And this, Ichigo, this is your upper body, and inside it, you have such strength and stamina,” Aizen whispered. He ran fingers up to his pectoral muscles and traced the lines up too his collarbone. “You will stand and fight, and here,” he continued and ran his hands down to his chest. “Here is the heart that no matter what happens, even I cannot turn in a direction you don’t wish to go.”

Ichigo was shivering from his touching him and what he was saying. Aizen’s hands moved down and rested on his hips. “This is your lower body.” Ichigo winced as his hands moved down the crease of his pelvis and hips. “This carries you and is the seat of your passions, your fire comes from here, and it is that that fuels your desires,” he said, hands carefully sliding down outside his thighs now.

“And here are your legs, that move with speed and grace and that will never change. You move and stand and between all these parts, you are who you have always been. Nothing has changed. You are the same person you have always been; it is simply clouded.”

Aizen ran his hands around and up the front of his hipbones, up his sides and around to his back. He slid them up to his neck and leaned closer as he placed a gentle kiss on his cheek. “But importantly, here is your beautiful and amazing mind.”

“It isn’t beautiful, or amazing.” Ichigo turned to look at Aizen. “It’s messed up and screwy, and I can’t think straight, and I can’t even think about what has happened, and I can’t tell you…” Aizen saw he was getting frustrated. “I can’t…I can’t even tell you…that…I can’t!”

“Ah, my dear, don’t. It will take time, but we will find a way to help you.”

“How?” he begged, looking up at him with pleading eyes. “How…how do you undo…this fucked up thing I’ve become…” he said and looked away from him.

“I will not undo what you have become,” he said and tilted his head upward to look at him. “What you have endured is part of you and cannot be undone. Instead I will help you get through it and survive it. That’s what must happen,” he said with definitive nod.

Ichigo’s eyes began to blink rapidly and Aizen knew he was phasing out of lucidity. “Shiro says that I should just go die because I am nothing but a worthless whore.”

“You should not listen to that Shiro, he is not the real one. You told me your Spirits loved you and would not say such things.”

“But…I just…and I’m so hot,” he muttered and wrapped his arms around Aizen and panted into his kusodo. “Hot, can’t…this…fire burns away the water and the blood just starts to spray out from the open wounds…” he said seriously and looked up at Aizen with wide eyes. “I can see them, when I get hot…the one with four legs…the one with the tusks…I see them when I get hot…their faces and how horrible and I screamed so much, and…”

“Shh, I think we need to find another one of the Espada, my dear. Who would you like see now?”

Ichigo, though, had completely lost purchase on the reality around him as he started to wander toward the door, still stark naked. Aizen grabbed a yukata and manipulated his arms into it before he stepped out into the hallway. He had started chewing on his thumbnail and looking around him. Even Aizen could smell the smell he exuded. It was somewhat sweet, unlike what Ichigo described from the Espada. It wasn’t musky or floral, it was simply…a sweet smell. Aizen wondered if the others could smell something more than that.

“Something…shut up Shiro, I know that…” he muttered as he wandered the hallways as Aizen walked behind him. He watched as he growled at a couple of Arrancar that passed him. They glanced at Ichigo oddly then moved on. Ichigo was constantly talking to his voices as he moved. He stopped suddenly in the middle of the hallway and looked around him.

“He’s nearby,” he muttered and Aizen realized the smell was growing in intensity.

“What the hell…” he heard and looked down the hall to see one of the doors open and Nnoitra stick his head out and lock eyes with Ichigo. “Oh…” he muttered and felt his mouth flood with saliva and all his blood rush with a dizzying sensation to his cock.

Ichigo teetered beside Aizen for a second before he walked slowly toward him. Nnoitra smiled, revealing his wide piano toothed smile. “I got him, Aizen-sama. I plan to fuck his stupid before I’m done with him,” he muttered and snatched Ichigo up into his arm. He already felt him nearly purring in his throat.

“See that he gets back to our room,” Aizen said as he walked away. He paused again, shaking his head at the strange sensation in his chest. He opened his kusodo and looked down at the hogyuku, realizing that it felt…different. He shook it away. It still did his bidding, and created new Arrancar for him, that was all that mattered. At least, that’s what he thought.

Nnoitra had been in the middle of sparring with a couple new Arrancar, fully released, of course. He looked at the ones watching him from their positions around the practice room. “Get the fuck out,” he said and they scattered, already feeling Nnoitra’s pulsing reiatsu.

Ichigo was squirming in his arms and he put him on his feet, holding him up with two hands while he stripped him with another pair. He growled under his breath. He hadn’t felt this in so long. To be honest, he kind of had missed the full heats that the lower Arrancar had. Sure, Tesla had heats and could bear young, but they weren’t like this. And young were rarely a result. This, though, this was the primal urges that they had tried to give up.

He ran another set of his hands up and down Ichigo’s sides, one pausing at his cock and stroking him. “You are a randy little fucker, aren’t you,” he muttered as he locked eyes with the clouded ones in front of him.

“Please, Nnoi…hot. I’m so hot, and its flooding me, and I have to stop it…” he gasped out as Nnoitra moved, turning him to face away from him and holding him suspended with two of his hands while he began stroking him with one in the front.

A fourth hand slipped down and three fingers slipped easily into him. It was nearly as wet as…a heating beta. He swallowed. Not even Tesla got this wet in his heat. It must have had something to do with Szayelaporro’s meddling. He ripped open his pants and couldn’t wait a second longer. He shifted Ichigo and slammed upward into him, using two hands to hold him up by his thighs, and two to hold onto his upper body, while the others were busy teasing nipples and cock at the same time. He let out a very inhuman scream, almost a hollow call.

“Oh, you like that, huh?” Nnoitra asked as he used his arms to slide him up and down slowly on him.

“Ah…you’re…so deep inside…” Ichigo whined out, hands clutching desperately at Nnoitra’s shoulders behind him. He was significantly longer than the others had been. Grimmjow beat him in girth, as did Ulquiorra, but Nnoitra was long and lanky. He seemed to be at the right position to rub incessantly against his prostate. “Ah, it’s coming fast this time,” he whimpered as an intense orgasm slammed into him. Nnoitra gasped as his own orgasm was pulled from him with a great deal of surprise.

“Holy fuck,” he groaned as he realized he was hard again without even moving out of his slick hole. “Ah, first round, always fast, Ichi-baby,” he muttered as he bucked upward to get to the claiming. He leaned in and licked at his neck gently beside one of the other marks and bit down as he felt Ichigo slide down over the edge again, harder this time, and he released inside him with a blast of reiatsu.

Nnoitra, though he had never had the inclination to care for his betas afterward, found himself wrapping him up in all six of his arms and holding him tightly to his chest as he dropped into his bed with him. He felt something strange in his chest, though. Then, the anger began to rise. How could those bastards in Soul Society have possibly done this to him? How? He intended to rip whatever Shinigami he came across first into tiny pieces, and then he’d shove those pieces down the throat of the next one he saw…

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Aizen looked up from the book he was reading as he felt the pulsing reiatsu. He wondered if it had been enough. Somehow he doubted, it though. There had been too many foreign reiatsu signatures. He sighed and put the book down. He looked up as Jatya came into the room, looking worried and upset.

“Segunda,” he said with a smile. “Is there something you require?”

“Aizen-sama, um, I can’t…can’t claim that beta…I mean…I already did…before you made me more powerful, so I doubt it will help if I did claim him,” he mumbled and looked at the floor as he spoke.

“Segunda, you will do as you are ordered. He has chosen you. I must clear him of the foreign reiatsu before I use the hogyuku on him. You will complete the claiming just as the others have and will,” Aizen said with a sigh as he picked up his book.

Jatya sighed and headed back to his castle, infinitely worried that he would end up having to claim the beta. He couldn’t even think his name. All he could see was that scared creature trapped in a cage with him in the beastly form he had as an adjunca. He bit down on his lip and relished his human features, but he hadn’t had them when he saw the beta before. He’d been more animal than anything. Some of them didn’t remember what happened before they became Arrancar. Jatya remembered everything in incredible clarity.

He went into the room and grabbed a bottle of the distilled liquor that came from one of Alma’s mushrooms when it was fermented. It was the strongest he had, and as he knocked back a glass and the just swigged from the bottle, he knew he was going to need more.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

[Year 11, Month 3, Day 20]

Nnoitra woke with Ichigo entwined in his multiple arms. He let his release mode go and sat up. He heard Ichigo mumbling and he sat up and looked at him. “Still…still, raining, blooding, it’s killing me…” he said as he got up, stark naked again as he headed for the door.

“Whoa, wait a minute, you need to put on this,” he said, grabbing the yukata. As he wrestled the body into the robe he thought to himself, why did he care if he was naked or not? What did it matter? It did matter, though, and as he followed him out into the halls of Las Noches again, he realized the extent of that thought.

He nearly ran into Estrella as they passed Segunda’s castle entrance. Ichigo stopped and looked through her into the doorway. He moved toward it and then pushed it open, following the scent that was luring him, fragrant spices and something else…

Ichigo came into a large open room where the Segunda Espada was sitting on a sofa with a bottle in his hand. He looked up and stood up suddenly. “What…what are you…” he gasped out.

“He came to you, Segunda. Take him back to Aizen when yer done with him,” Nnoitra said and walked out past Estrella who stood staring in the doorway. She watched him go, seeing that he didn’t bother insulting her like usual.

Ichigo was shaking, though. Even though he was following pure instinct, and the hollow drives could not be resisted no matter if he had his full mind or not, he was afraid and his mind was spiraling to the monstrous creature that Jatya had once been. Estrella sighed and smiled at Jatya softly.

“Take care, Jatya. I’ll be outside if you need me,” she said and left quickly, already feeling the rising levels of power coming from the Segunda.

Jatya stood staring for a long time at the trembling Shinigami before him. He felt the pulling instincts too, and he was going to have to answer them. Not doing so would drive him mad and might make it harder for the Shinigami to survive.

“I don’t want to do this,” Jatya said. “Not after…after what I did before…” he whispered and turned away, putting his bottle down on the table beside the sofa.

Ichigo moved toward him, lured and unable to stop it. This was an Arrancar, not the adjunca hollow that had nearly killed him in the cell. This wasn’t a situation where he was powerless, either. He hadn’t been drugged and unable to fight. He swallowed a thick ball at the back of his throat. It was strange, his most lucid times were when he was with one of the Espada like this, during the claiming. It seemed that answering the instincts quieted the rest of his unstable mind. If nothing else, he was glad of that fact. To be sane for a short time, even like this…

Even so, Ichigo grabbed the bottle and sucked down a long drink of the burning liquid. Jatya turned around and gasped, grabbing the bottle out of his hand. Ichigo blinked at him, and then the world was spinning madly. Everything blurred for a long time and when it cleared he was looking at the white ceiling and felt like he’d been sick.

Jatya had seen the strong drink hit him, and he very nearly passed out. He’d gotten him into the bath and tried to wake him, and then his body rejected the potent drink. After a quick washing for both, Jatya had put him in his bed. His own drunkenness had burned off during his worry over the beta.

“That was dangerous,” Jatya said as he leaned over Ichigo and considered his eyes. As soon as he got close, though, Ichigo moaned and his hands reached for him. Jatya wanted to bat his hands away but he couldn’t as he simply leaned down onto him, nuzzling into his neck as his body reacted to the beta.

“I’m so…so hot…please…I need…you to do this…” he whispered to him.

“You don’t know what you ask,” Jatya said softly as he crawled on top of the beta, hands running up the inside of his thighs. “You are a slave to the instincts that I am a slave to.”

“No…” Ichigo muttered as he arched and felt the thrumming feelings run through him. “I’m clearer now than I have been…please…I know…it wasn’t you…” he muttered and Jatya couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Ah, I’m so sorry,” he muttered as he lifted Ichigo’s hips and slid down into the wet warmth. It was dripping around him and the bed under where Ichigo was lying was wet from the secretions. He groaned deeply as he held himself inside the beta.

It was different, though, to do this with a mind and not as a creature with no thought. He slid back and forth, stroking Ichigo’s legs as he did so, watching as his cock disappeared inside a willing body below him. He flashed briefly to the horrific and bloody… No. That wasn’t him, not anymore. He was an Arrancar now, not a mindless hollow. He stroked Ichigo as he thrust into him slowly and steadily until they both fell down the first crest. Jatya was still, letting the second wave come over him, and this time, gentleness was gone, and he slammed their bodies together with a fervor that came from claiming someone so powerful. He leaned down and found a space on his neck and bit down. The second his teeth pierced the flesh, Ichigo screamed out as he fell hard from the pleasurable crest. Jatya followed, his powerful reiatsu slamming into them with a near snapping sound.

Jatya fell to the side and allowed himself to answer the needs to care for the beta after the claiming. He shifted them away from the soaked sheets and pulled him into his arm. Ichigo looked up with eyes starting to cloud. “I forgive you,” he whispered before his eyes fluttered and tears started to leak from his eyes… “But not enough…not enough…” he whispered as he fell into a deep sleep in Jatya’s arms. Jatya bit down on his lip and pulled him close again and let sleep claim him.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Present

[Year 11, Month 6, Day 4]

“Imelda!” someone screamed and Rukia came awake with a start. She was curled against Renji who also jumped.

“What is it?” came the Arrancar’s voice.

“The labor has started, hurry!” and then they heard a long low moan.

“Dammit Imelda!” Dima screamed. “I am never letting this happen again! I’m going to go hide the next time I go into heat!”

“It is fine, just relax,” Imelda said.

The group got up and moved over toward where Imelda was behind the curtains with Dima. She looked up as they approached. “You can witness, if you like. I am sure this is very unlike the births that you are used to seeing. They are similar, as our forms attempt to mimic human shape and function.”

“Stop instructing!” Dima snapped as he sat and rocked on the side of his bed. “While you’re over there telling them what happens, I’m actually going through it!” he growled.

“He’s a bit touchy because the first stage is beginning. The bodies of hollows don’t always have instant regeneration; this is one exception. The spiritual energy begins to pool near the reiatsu chamber, and then it tears an opening from inside the body to the outside. That is where the young exit. However, the process is painful. There is very little blood loss, however, due to the regeneration that is triggered in all betas. That is a hallmark of most betas, as well,” she said as she sat beside Dima and rubbed his back.

“What is a hallmark?” Renji asked as he watched with interest.

“Instant regeneration, idiot Shinigami!” Dima growled. “Most betas…have it to cope…with the birthing process…”

“Ichigo’s hollow has instant regeneration…” Rukia said thoughtfully. “That…that makes sense.”

“Your Shinigami is quite special. He is not only one with the instant regeneration, but a powerful beta as well. However, that has made his situation very difficult up there, as I’ve felt the reiatsu spikes of most of them. They could have other mates, however,” Imelda said, trying to encourage the watching group.

“Spikes…when one of them claim him as a mate?” Uryū asked as he leaned against the poll the curtain hung from.

“Yes, it is a distinctly different type of reiatsu, made to announce to the world that the alpha has mated a beta, a warning, if you will, for others to stay away. Sort of a preening of sorts,” Imelda said with a smile. “A mark of pride, as well as the transference of the soul for birthing. Of course, among lower hollows, it serves to ward their beta from any interlopers.”

Dima jumped up and started chanting something quietly as he paced back and forth, using it to regulate his breathing. It was something about Incense and Peppermints. Orihime watched as Dima’s reiatsu began to shift, and finally he growled.

“They’re going to come,” he said, panting as he dropped to his knees.

“Alright, just breath, I’ll guide them,” Imelda said. She placed both hands on Dima’s belly.

“What are you doing?” Chad asked curiously from behind the others.

“Guiding them with my energy. Unlike living beings, there is no mechanism to push, so the alpha’s job is the help them from the chamber through the birthing. A hollow alone during birthing often dies because of this,” she said as a glow of her reiatsu encompassed Dima’s belly.

“Ho…oh…wow…that…never again, Imelda,” he gasped out as he returned to chanting the song. Renji moved forward and took one of his hands and then regretted it. Dima held it tightly and pushed down on it, seeking resistance as Imelda reached under to retrieve one of the squirming creatures that seemed to be already walking…

“Ah, no, little one, stay put,” she said gently. She looked up at the surprised Shinigami. “They’re born walking. Survival requires it,” she added as the process was repeated. The little Arrancar had sat down and was sucking on his fingers. Already, they could feel it’s reiatsu as the other one was picked up.

Dima flopped down onto his ass and fell over onto the floor panting. “Oh I’m so glad that’s over,” he whispered and fell immediately into a deep sleep. Imelda smiled and gathered up the two little boy Arrancar. She smiled at the group and showed them the two little creatures.

“Liron and Lior are their names,” Imelda said as they squirmed in her arms. “They will grow rapidly, doubling in size within a week or so.”

Rukia looked at them and they both locked eyes on her. They had slightly reddish brown how, and each one had a mask fragment behind an ear that looked like a feather. Lior, the slightly smaller of the two, had his behind his left ear. Liron’s was behind his right ear. They appeared to be as close to identical as possible other than the one feature.

“Will they have Resurrections and things like that?” Uryū asked, frankly amazed.

“One day when their spiritual energy matures. For now, they feed off the spiritual energy of the alpha and beta. The ambient reishi also provides energy to them, so they do not require consuming of souls. Though here they will eat some foods that we make for them. These are our first young, so we are excited for it,” Imelda said as she handed one of to the owl Arrancar Maxi as he approached.

“Here, Maxi, hold them for a second so I can put Dima into bed,” she said as she handed over the other one. Maxi nodded and smiled at both in turn.

Imelda reached down and hefted Dima up easily and deposited him in the bed. “There, now. He’ll sleep for around a day or two, then he’ll be zipping around like mad, no doubt,” she said with a soft smile.

She looked at Uryū. “I heard that you went to practice with Artemisia,” Imelda said with a smile.

Uryū nodded. “Um, yeah. Her and…ah, the one with the bluish black and shiny hair…”

“Her mate, Ratri,” Imelda said, snuggling the infant into her neckline. “I have a favor to ask of you all, would you mind going to gather food with our people today? We need stores from our hydroponics area and some of the fish that are in the underground river that runs by it.”

“Hydroponics?” Uryū said, arching a brow.

“Yes, here,” she looked around and then saw who she was looking for. “Chilin!”

The other Arrancar came over, and they immediately saw that he was pregnant as well. He wore something that looked like a belly dancer’s outfit. It had a long skirt the brushed the ground and a halter top that left his stomach open. The small pooch was pronounced, but it was nowhere near the size that Dima’s had been. He was short and very slender, so it was obvious that he was suited to the clothes he was wearing. His mask fragment looked like a set of jaws from each side of his head, and there was a thin red stripe down each of his cheeks. His shoulder length hair was somewhat wild around his face, the bangs that flopped almost into his eyes bright yellow, and the rest black fading into red at the tips. He smiled brightly at them as he came over.

“Can you take them to help harvest some of the mushrooms and the fish? I am afraid I am a bit…busy…” she said smiling at him.

“I can, come along,” he said and spun with surprising grace despite the burgeoning belly.

Renji looked around. “Where…where did Kira and Hisagi go?” he asked.

“Oh, I had them go down with Zeboim to medical to help with Andresta. The blonde one said he had medical knowledge, and seemed to know a little about what your researcher did,” Imelda said with a nod. “With Dima’s labor I forgot to tell you.”

Renji nodded. “Oh…okay,” he said and ran to catch up with Chilin and the others who were headed down through tunnels. He leaned near to Rukia. “I’m having a hard time getting used to pregnant men,” he muttered.

Rukia smirked. “I love his skirt, so pretty.”

Chilin looked back at her. “Isn’t it? I love to dance in it. We had a box of these show up one time while I was up in Las Noches, and there was a book on belly dancing. I simply fell in love with it. I’ve taught a few of the others how to do it since I came down here, but not as many are as dedicated to it as I am. It is almost freeing. At least here I don’t get leered at…”

“Um, where is you…ah…mate?” Orihime asked nervously from beside Rukia.

“Oh, Fereydun is down at the river already,” he said with a smile. “We’ll see him in a second, here we go…”

They came out into an area with rushing water that led into what looked like a garden area. Several Arrancar walked around and picked various mushrooms, and others seemed to be fishing. One of them looked up. He was somewhat androgynous looking, and he got up to come hug Chilin. He was darker skinned and had long wavy hair cascading down his back. His tongue flicked out for a second, and they realized it was forked.

“Did Imelda’s boys arrive?” he asked with slight hiss to his voice. There were scaly white patches on his cheeks. He stood a bit taller than the smaller Chilin.

“Yes, she needed to get some food. She asked the Shinigami to come with me to help,” he said with a bright smile. “This is Fereydun,” Chilin said as he hugged his arm around the other Arrancar’s back.

“Um, well, I’m Renji, this is Rukia, Uryū, Chad, and Orihime,” Renji said, pointing to each in turn. “Our other two companions are in the medical area trying to help sort out Andresta…” he said with a sigh.

“That poor creature,” Fereydun muttered. “If he doesn’t throw himself from the spires of Las Noches in his guilt and grief, I would be surprised.”

“Chilin!” came a new voice and they looked up as a very female looking Arrancar. She was wearing what looked like a latex bodysuit that hugged every curve of her body. Her long curly blond hair was pinned up in a high ponytail, and there was a mask piece that looked like the upper jaw of a large cat sat on her forehead. Her cheeks were speckled with spotting that ran down toward her jaw.

“Alma,” Chilin said. “Imelda’s got her boys, and Dima’s out. So, I came down to get a few baskets of mushrooms and a bunch of fish, and any of those herbs would be nice.”

“Well, you’ll have to see Kerest if you want herbs, I only deal with the mushrooms,” she said with a smirk. She realized that the others were staring at her. “I’m the head mushroom gardener, I guess you’d say,” she said to them. “I’m always knee deep in muck around here, so I don’t wear regular clothes when I’m working.”

Renji nodded slowly. “Um, yeah…so you have a lot of mushrooms, huh?”

“Oh yes!” she said excitedly, nearly clapping. “We have some really unique breeds, and I’ve managed to create some hybrids too.” She led them to a darker area and turned on a reddish light that illuminated a field of various mushrooms that extended past their vision.

“I never knew there were so many kinds…these are all mushrooms?” Orihime said, scanning them.

Alma smiled proudly. “Yes, gathered from all over Hueco Mundo. The tall ones are my favorite,” she said pointing to some that had to be ten feet tall with a wide cap on them. “They are one of the larger breeds, and they are so flavorful you barely need herbs with them.”

“I didn’t know Arrancar needed to eat?” Uryū said with a frown.

“Like you, we can consume food, both for the pleasure of it, and to nourish our energy,” Chilin said as he handed a basket to each of them. “We’re not here for the tree ones, those we harvest when they turn bright red at the top.”

Chad noted an area that was roped off from the rest. “What are those?”

Alma nodded. “Those are medicinal. I grow several that can be used for medical purposes. There’s one that makes an antiseptic ointment with the spores, and another one can be used as a pain relieving ointment on the skin. There’s one in there that makes this really strong glue, too. Don’t want to get that one mixed up with the food mushrooms!”

“And these?” Uryū said, looking at a wall covered in small ones.

“Ah, those. Those are a type of truffle, I think that’s what you call them, but they feed on those minerals that run through that wall. Very delicate and tasty,” Alma said. “Now, those over there,” she said pointing to a small alcove with black colored mushrooms with pointed caps. “Those have some…ah, special properties. I trade them up with Zommari in Las Noches. He’s one of the few ones up there that know about us, but if he gets his mushrooms for his visions, he’s happy keeping quiet.”

“Oh,” Uryū muttered. “So they’re hallucinogenic,” he said with a nod.

Alma smiled and led them to several rows of dark brown hand sized round mushrooms. “These are the staple of our diets. Simple, and combined with the others, it can take on flavors and textures. Most of the hybrids are made based on this one. So, pick a basket of these…you and you,” she said pointing to Orihime and Rukia. “And you two, come over here,” she said and motioned to Uryū and Chad. Chilin had taken off to a different row with Renji in tow. “Grab a basket of these,” she said and pointed to some slender stalked mushrooms with caps like perfect little white balls on top. “These are bitter, but they’re more nutritious than any of the others, and if you cook them properly, they lose the bitterness.”

After the mushroom picking was done, they took the baskets back to what looked like a makeshift kitchen. Another Arrancar took them and began slicing them up. Chilin led them back to the area where Imelda was sitting with the two babies clinging to her and chittering in her ear.

“A good trip?” she asked as they came up.

“Yes, it is fascinating what you’ve built down here,” Uryū said.

“It has taken a lot of work, and there is much that has to be done to keep things running smoothly, but we all work together,” she said as she sat the two babies down. They proceeded to play with each other’s toes.

“Um, when do you think we can…” Rukia began but heard a shrill screech that she recognized.

“Put me down, you’re going to mess up my hair!” Yumichika’s voice echoed around them.

The huge Arrancar came over and dropped Yumichika off his shoulder and Ikkaku off his hip. Ikkaku was unconscious, and Yumichika was fuming and patting his hair. “Brutish creature!” he yelled. “To do something so vile to a beautiful thing like me,” he said and looked up in surprise to see the others. “So this is what happened to you!” he said.

Imelda smiled. “I’ll let you deal with your own. I must check in with medical on Andresta’s condition and see if your other companions need anything.”

Orihime stopped her. “Um, I have a healing ability, can…can I come with you? Maybe I can help.”

“Of course, dear, come along. Chilin, watch the babies,” she said as she led Orihime away.

Rukia looked at Yumichika who smacked Ikkaku’s head. “Wake up, lazy ass!”

Ikkaku sat up, blinking as he looked around. “What…that guy hit like Zaraki-taichou…” he muttered.

“How did you two get caught?” Renji asked, crossing his arms over his chest with a smirk.

“Zaraki-taichou’s shortcuts…” Yumichika muttered. “We got separated from him and the fuku taichou. Wandered into this place…”

“What the hell is this?” Ikkaku asked as he looked around.

Renji and Rukia sighed and sat down to begin the tale once more.

 

* * *


	7. When Cero is Born

[Year 11, Month 3, Day 21]

 

 “Ichigo?” Aizen said gently as he ran his hands over his head. His eyes fluttered and he stared at him for a moment. Unfortunately, it appeared he wasn’t lucid now.

“Butterflies,” he muttered and sat up, his hair sticking out in various points around him. “Too many butterflies, I can’t see,” he muttered as he stood up and looked at Aizen.

“Hush, now, come,” Aizen said as he wrapped the yukata he’d brought around him. “Breakfast, then I have a meeting with the Espada.”

Ichigo nodded, grabbing onto his arm as he walked out of Segunda’s castle. Aizen led him down to the dining room and saw several of the Arrancar were watching him carefully. He still wasn’t completely aware of most of his surroundings from what Aizen could tell. He grabbed both some of the food that one of the Arrancar had made. It was nothing especially good, but it was enough. He pulled Ichigo down to his lap. The reason was with him able to reach his Shunpo, he needed an even closer watch on him. He played with his food until Aizen fed him, trying to push his hands away from his mouth as he did it. He sighed. So much damage to his mind. It was excruciatingly obvious that Mayuri hadn’t intended him to live.

“Aizen-sama?” came a voice. He glanced over and saw a younger Arrancar.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Um, sir, I wanted to report that there have been Shinigami spotted on the sands. Not very long at a time, but it seems they are doing some sort of reconnaissance on Las Noches,” he said nervously.

At the words, Ichigo’s body tensed and he gripped Aizen harder and buried his face in his chest. Aizen patted his back. “Shush, now, they’re not going to get close to you, my dear,” he muttered as he stood up, not bothering to stand Ichigo up. He just picked him up and headed off to the conference room. After a while, the Espada had gathered, including Segunda, to Aizen’s surprise. Perhaps mating with Ichigo had helped him. He’d put Ichigo on the floor by his chair and given him a bottle of red paint and some paper. He was happily drawing with his fingers. Now and then he’d giggle or mutter something to the voices that spoke to him, but other than that he was content.

“Reports are showing more instances of Shinigami scouts,” Grimmjow said with a shake of his head. “No idea what they think they’re going to accomplish by coming here.”

“They want him back, obviously,” Nnoitra said as he crossed his arms.

“But for what purpose? In the state, he’s in…” Harribel said as she glanced at him. “The boy is barely coherent, what good does retrieving him do Soul Society?”

Aizen thought and looked at them. “The boy is a danger to them now that I have him. I doubt very much they want him to heal him. They were intending to execute him as it was, but knowing he’s innocent doesn’t change what has happened to him.”

“Fixing crazy as fuck isn’t as easy as it sounds,” Grimmjow muttered and glanced over when Ichigo giggled louder than before. He shushed himself and started muttering again.

“No, and they won’t fix this. Ichigo is a glaring example of how easily corrupted they were. They don’t want him to exist simply because if he does, he is a reminder of how they took a bright, talented young man and broke him completely. Ichigo loves them still, and I do not understand that,” he said with a sigh as he saw Ichigo had opted to roll in the paint now. He sighed. He had it all over his braid and clothes now.

There was a silence. “What is your intention with the boy, then?” Harribel asked, looking at him seriously.

Aizen started to answer then stopped. He let out a deep sigh. “I’ve changed much over the time he’s been here. Perhaps it is the hogyuku, perhaps it is Ichigo himself. I do not know. He’s taken my heart, and I know that most of you would agree with that sentiment,” he said, glancing around at the four Espada that had mated with him so far.

“It is fucked up,” Nnoitra said as he crossed his arms with a huff. “That little mother fucker wormed his way into my head and now I can’t fucking stop thinking about him and killing every goddamned person from Soul Society I ever see.”

Aizen nodded and jerked when Ichigo sat up on his knees and put his head on his thigh. “M’hot,” he muttered again. “Ink. Smells like ink and flowers,” he said as he ducked under the table. Aizen watched as Szayel gasped and reached under the table.

“Ah, wait a minute!” he gasped as he pushed the chair back and glanced at Aizen. He nodded as Szayel pulled Ichigo out from under the table. He was positively drunk looking and drooling. “Come on,” he said as he took him by the hand. “I have some sweets for you too.” Szayel grinned and led him down to his lab.

Once inside Ichigo started to strip the yukata off and began touching his already leaking cock. “Szay, please…” he whimpered as he looked up to realize Szayel had stripped off his own clothes.

Ichigo blinked and stared. “You…your hollow hole…” he muttered as he realized that there was a very good reason he’d never seen Szayel’s hollow hole before. It was in the head of his cock.

Szayel smirked at him and pushed him to his knees. “Yes, interesting, isn’t it?” he said as he put it to his lips and then snapped his hips and pulled Ichigo’s head forward. “I get so much pleasure from it in so many ways,” he muttered as he watched Ichigo’s eyes water from the ferocity he was fucking his throat. He growled as he shot his first down his throat. He planned to enjoy him, so it was imperative that he not go off too quickly.

Ichigo coughed and dropped to his hands and knees as Szayel pulled back. He heaved a few breaths but then he was on his back, looking up at Szayel. “Now, your turn,” Szayel said as he moved down between his legs and began to suck on Ichigo’s cock in return. Ichigo wasn’t sure that he’d had someone do this before, and it didn’t take long before he gasped as he came down Szayel’s throat.

Szayel came up and smirked. “There, now that the first one is out of the way,” he said as he leaned forward and picked Ichigo up and easily tossed him over his shoulder. He gave a squeak as he was spinning around and landing on something soft. Now, though, Szayel was moving and had buried three fingers in him before Ichigo even realized what he was doing.

“The wetness always fascinates me,” he muttered as he thrust his fingers deeply into him. “An absolutely useless process, since the young aren’t delivered this way,” he said as he spread his fingers and stretched him open. Ichigo let out a long whine.

“Please, I need…it’s so hard in there,” he whispered and Szayel knew he was talking about the problem with his reiatsu being poisoned.

“I know, Ichi-love, just a minute, and I’ll help,” he said as he moved up and slid his cock home.

Ichigo bucked back against him and moaned deep in his throat. Szayel hadn’t done this in a long while, let alone with a beta like this. He smirked as he tormented the poor thing, slowly pressing in and back until he couldn’t stop it any longer and let the instinct take over. He went over the first time when Ichigo crested. He spun Ichigo over and began the claiming as he watched his face. When the reiatsu rolled over them both, they gasped out in sync with each other. Szayel fell forward and clutched Ichigo to his chest, nearly sobbing suddenly. It took a second to realize what had happened. As incredibly unlikely as it was, Szayel realized what was happening.

Ichigo was giving them what all hollows needed: a way to fill the emptiness. And in return, they were giving him some of their aspect of death…

He felt. For the first time in so many, many years, he felt deeply. What a thing…

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

[Year 11, Month 3, Day 22]

Starrk awoke with a groan as Lilynette landed on his stomach. “Wake up lazy ass.”

“What is it?” Starrk mumbled. “I was sleeping.”

“You’re always sleeping. I think it’s time. You know it,” she said with a growl to her voice. “I feel it.”

Starrk nodded. “Yes, so it seems. I should go, yes?”

“Yes, get this done. There’s something coming. And you need to help him. I hate that I feel it too, but you have to,” she said with a sigh.

Starrk nodded and stood slowly, easily following the scent and the allure of the beta’s heat. He wandered the halls for a long while until he came to one of the rooms where a large fountain had been built. He put his hands in his pockets as he went into the room. He heard splashing immediately. He looked and saw Aizen was sitting on a bench watching as Ichigo, completely divested of his clothes, was sitting in the middle of the fountain splashing and giggling. Ichigo’s head popped up as soon as Starrk came into the area.

Aizen smiled and nodded to him. He started to get up but Starrk waved at him to stay. He knew that this would destroy the last of the reiatsu that was poisoning him. Starrk felt it as he moved to sit on the edge of the fountain. Ichigo slowly crawled through the water to him and knelt.

“Puppy,” he muttered and headbutted Starrk’s leg.

“Hum, yes,” Starrk said and started running his hand over Ichigo’s head. “You are in need, yes?”

“Yeah,” Ichigo said, looking at him. “So hot…so…much pain…you…you can help?”

“Of course,” Starrk said and snatched Ichigo up from the water and pulled him to straddle his lap, his own cock already hard from the smell alone.

Starrk didn’t waste time, mostly because he felt the desperation as he freed himself and slid Ichigo down onto his hardness, sliding into the heated depths. He moaned and embraced Starrk tightly. His voice when he spoke was different, not tinged with the high-pitched sound it often was.

“Help, it’s killing us…” he whispered as he started to writhe on Starrk’s lap. “Stop it, I can’t stop it…not alone…”

“I know, I know,” Starrk said and leaned forward, licking against his neck before moving with speed that no one knew the lazy Espada had. He dumped Ichigo forward onto the ground, slamming him down hard. He pulled his left leg up and straddled the right, driving into him hard and fast.

Aizen blinked. He didn’t think Starrk capable of such furious attentions. He supposed sex was one way to work the lazy bastard up. He watched as Ichigo’s face turned toward him and he was obviously in between pain and ecstasy. He moaned low as he fell over the edge the first time, then Starrk followed him, slowing for a bit as he worked in and out of him until he was hardened again. He leaned forward and pushed his shoulders to the ground, still having his body twisted under him. He growled and bit hard into a space on his neck. The explosion of reiatsu was enough that Aizen found himself stunned for a second before blinking and finding Starrk sitting on the ground, cradling Ichigo in his arms with a confused look.

Aizen blinked and moved over. He saw all six of the bites left by the Espada were leaking energies that matched their spiritual energies. Ichigo was completely unconscious, though, eyes white and open. He knelt and cupped his face, hoping that this wasn’t his end… But why?

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“Hush, I’ve got you,” came a voice Ichigo had missed so much. He sobbed and clung to someone that was holding him tightly. “I’ve got you, I’m never letting you go again…”

Ichigo opened his eyes and found he was in his inner world. He was in a bubble where outside it there was a rain of black ichor all around. The bubble was barely big enough to contain the three of them because he saw Shiro was holding him, and Zangetsu sat beside him.

“Sh-Shiro…” he whispered and looked at him. He reached up and cupped the white face. “He tried…he tried to take you away…and…”

“I know, King, I know,” he said and clutched him to his chest. “They did it, the poison is gone. But your madness remains,” he whispered to him.

Ichigo saw he raining black ichor that was running down the outside of the bubble. He swallowed. “I can think. I’m not muddled,” he whispered and looked up into Shiro’s black and gold eyes.

“This is the last spec of your sanity, King,” Shiro said with a smile. “Fucking nearly killed us to get to it, you know. We did, and now you’re going to have to do the work. You get us back. We’re trusting you, though. I know you don’t understand, but we have to do something. The poison is gone, so the bubble is safe. But we can’t last in here, King.”

Ichigo nodded. “I’m messed up. Why should I try? I can’t even begin to tell you what this is like…to see things…hear things…and I know they aren’t there!” Ichigo swallowed. “Can’t…can’t I just die and move on? This is hell…to know it…”

“No, King, it isn’t that simple. This damage? This is your soul. It goes with you. There’s no going around it. You have to go through it.”

“I’m crazy,” Ichigo said. “You know that. I can’t even…and I’m…what I did to…to stop the poisoned reiatsu…” He blinked and looked at Shiro. “How can I even begin to be okay with this? I’m nothing but…but…”

“Hush. You’re a beta. You’re going to be a full Arrancar very soon. Once you are, you might be able to manage the insanity with some practice,” Shiro said with a smile.

“What? Why am I going to be a full Arrancar?” Ichigo asked with wide eyes.

“He’s putting you into a stasis chamber for the transformation now, that’s what’s happening outside now. The hogyuku is going to transform us. It’s the only way,” Shiro said as he clutched Ichigo tighter.

“Why?” Ichigo asked trying to push him back but finding he was far too weak to even move now.

“The claiming, there were six, Ichigo, and you’re marked by them all. The Shinigami is too weak to survive. What that bastard Mayuri did…it was almost enough to kill you. Only your stubborn ass refusal to die that kept you alive and me from emerging. Well, there were a few times I tried, but whatever that mother fucker did kept me from doing it. I would have killed every one of the mother fuckers. So, that’s why I’m keeping you in here for a while, hoping the hogyuku can let you heal. For a little while,” Shiro said and brushed a hand over his head.

“I’m going to be bound to them?” Ichigo asked.

“Yeah, they’re your alphas now. But they’ll go to the ends of the worlds for you. The hogyuku doesn’t only change you, mostly because Aizen’s an idiot,” Shiro said and leaned to kiss his forehead gently. Ichigo frowned at him, suddenly, his energy draining even further. “Yeah, he thinks he’s the master. He’s wrong. But you’re too fucking insane to understand right now, well, out there anyway. I’m going to do my best to help, okay? And this transformation might help some, but I can’t fix everything for you. You’re going to have to do it. I know you don’t believe you can. But you will. And they’ll help you and take care of you until you do,” Shiro said and Ichigo’s eyes fluttered, the world fading out and descending into something akin to solid chaos around him.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

[Year 11, Month 5, Day 15]

Aizen stood over the chamber and waited. Every day, he came in here to see if it was finished, if he was going to emerge. There was a constant rotation of the Espada, including those that had not claimed Ichigo as a beta. Harribel and her fraccion were often there, waiting as well. No one said anything, of course, they simply waited. None of them wanted to express the things they knew were possible. Szayel knew that it was more than possible he would never emerge.

So now, Aizen knelt by the cube he was laid in. The mist inside kept anyone from seeing inside. It would not open until the transformation was complete. Aizen had no idea what would happen. He’d never done this with a Shinigami. There were so many variables. But this was their only choice. He put his hands on the top.

“I never imagined this,” he said quietly. “I never thought this would happen. You changed me. You changed them. I didn’t care when I started this game. You were a ploy, a pawn on the board for me. I would use you and your power however I liked, just like I did the Arrancar like Wonderweiss and Tōsen and Gin. Things, tools to reach my desire. But then…you did something. I don’t know how. I was as hollow as the Arrancar I created. Hollowed out, emotionless, only one desire, to reach power untold. Then…the first time I saw that look, the abject terror on your face at the thought of going back to them…and when you looked at us like we were the ones in the right, the just ones, as Tōsen would have said…”

Aizen walked around it, a rectangular box, almost coffin like, to be honest, and drug his hand over the hard, smooth surface. It was slightly warm to the touch. He hoped that meant that he was alive still. He had no way to know.

“I never imagined this, no, never,” he said and stopped, placing his hand over the end of the box. “You did what no one could. You made me love something more than power. You made me love you…”

There was a release of pressure from the box and Aizen stepped back. It was opening. Immediately, Grimmjow and Szayel appeared at the doorway. Aizen sensed the others were near as well. The clear cube crumbled and the mists cleared and Aizen smiled. He heard deep breaths from the clouded smoke.

“Ichigo?” he asked as he stepped forward, the mist dissipating.

He looked up, at first glance, not much different than before. But his face was marked, and so was his chest. A large black circle sat in the center and lines ran back over his body. He blinked his light brown eyes repeatedly as he looked up at Aizen. Aizen smiled. On his throat, the number zero had appeared. His hair was loose, flowing around and down to the floor where he knelt, surrounding him like an orange corona.

Aizen moved to kneel in front of him. He reached out and put his hands on either side of Ichigo’s face. “You’re with us again, Ichigo,” he said gently.

Ichigo smiled and reached up to touch Aizen’s face. Now, he could see the stark marks, three down each side of his neck, where the Espada had claimed him. They were all swirling with black and red energy.  Aizen ran his hands down his body, sliding around his bare back and hugging him tightly. “I was afraid you wouldn’t emerge.”

“Shiro…said…I had to…or we’d die…” he whispered. “I’m not well…but…I’m n-not dying…”

Aizen nodded and swept him up into his arms. “Come we’re going to let you rest in our bed,” he said and passed the other Espada who watched them go.

He put him down easily, and went to get him something to drink. When he came back, he noticed that he was staring at him with clear eyes for a little while.

“I have to… go through…it. I can’t…avoid it…” he said before his eyes flittered away ad he whispered to something that wasn’t there.

Aizen slid into the bed beside him and pulled him into his lap. Ichigo gasped but held to him. “I love you, too,” he muttered as he fell into a restless sleep in Aizen’s arms.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Present

[Year 11, Month 6, Day 6]

Kira and Shūhei sat in the medical ward and were stunned by what they had been shown. The things that had been done to these Arrancar…they were wretched. Despite that, they were both impressed by how well equipped and stocked the Arrancar’s medical was. There were about every type of medicine and surgery item that could be imagined.

“Iris, you have to eat,” Kira said softly as he sat beside the bed of the Arrancar. She was weeping softly now, but she would often wail loudly. Getting her to eat was a chore, and Kira had offered to handle it for breakfast. Shūhei had gone to help with Andresta, who was having another breakdown.

Iris, as usual, spoke nothing, only wept a bit louder and covered her face. Kira thought she was a pretty Arrancar, with lovely dark purple hair and large eyes with black marks around both. Her mask fragment looked like a flowering vine twining through her long, straight hair. They had no idea what had happened to her. Zadie, one of the medical Arrancar, said that she had been unable to speak ever since she became an Arrancar, which was why she was discarded by Aizen.

“Did you hear the screaming of the planet as it died?” whispered a voice to Kira’s left. He jumped and saw it was Lel, another of the ones that Mayuri had done something to. He blinked wide, dull blue-gray eyes at Kira.

“Lel, no, I didn’t, have you eaten yet?” he asked gently.

“No, the true face of the sky got in the way,” he muttered and wandered over toward the other side of the room where he stood and stared at a spot on the wall. His mask fragment looked like the shell of a horseshoe crab and sat over the back of his head nearly obscuring his brown hair from behind.

He sighed and put the bowl of soup down. Iris continued to rock and weep. He could hear Kriya Windthunder’s voice from the next area easily so he got up and walked into the room.

“Andresta, for pity’s sake,” she growled.

At first, Kira had thought she was a male Arrancar because of her dress. She wore suits and had brass colored hair. Her mask fragment was a bunch of spikey protrusions on her skull that came up out of her hair. She also was always accompanied by another Arrancar, that he had come to know as Moab Dali. He had purple hair and wore fancy black clothes. Kira thought he was quiet, and he seemed to worry all the time.

Shūhei had taken a position near the doorway to the small alcove, probably to keep him inside it and stop him from running around the place. Kira walked up and sighed. “What happened?”

Shūhei sighed. “He had a nightmare, and we can’t get him settled back down…”

“Andresta!” Kriya said and grabbed him by the shoulders to shake him. “Look at me!”

Andresta moved his eyes to her and panted, trying to stop the flood of tears down his face. “I’m sorry, so sorry…just…I remembered…and I couldn’t stop it…and his eyes, of all the things I’ll never forget, his eyes!”

“You need to calm yourself,” Kriya said with a sigh. “This is doing you no good.”

“How can I be calm knowing he’s up there in Las Noches? That he could…could remember what I did?” he gasped.

“Andresta. We have gone over this time and time again. I do not know how to make you understand better,” Kriya said, voice softening some. “But here, it’s a tonic from one of the mushrooms, should calm you down. I know Dima would be sad if you didn’t come to the celebration today.”

Andresta sighed. “Okay,” he said and took the vial and sucked it down. He made a sour face. “Oh, that is awful,” he muttered as he wiped his mouth.

“Well, at least your heartrate is dropping,” she said with a sigh. She glanced at Kira and Shūhei. “You should join your companions at the celebration. I’ll have Moab take you.”

The two Shinigami thanked her and let Moab lead them to a brightly lit beach. It looked like a huge underground lake emerged at this spot, and everyone was starting to gather. They thanked Moab who took off back to Kriya. They spotted Rukia and the others all huddled together near one side away from the busy Arrancar so they headed over.

“There you are,” Rukia said with a smile. “We were wondering if you were going to stay in medical all day.”

Kira nodded then glanced over to see that Ikkaku was sitting on the ground with Yumichika’s head lying in his lap. He smirked. They usually didn’t show any outward signs of affection toward each other, but he supposed this was an entirely different situation. All around them, Arrancar they knew and those they didn’t began filtering in. Near where they were standing Dima and Imelda had set up with the babies. Dima came running over toward them.

“Good, you’re all here! This should be a lot of fun!” he said as he bounded around. “I’m so glad to not be pregnant,” he muttered as he spun on his toes like a ballerina. He was wearing a pair of tight shorts and a looser shirt.

“I would imagine,” Renji said with a smirk. “You look like you like to move a lot.”

“Oh yes, I love to run especially,” he said with a smirk before he tipped over and hand walked back toward the area with the babies, for which Imelda chided him for overexerting himself so soon after they were born. Kira noted that he had a pink sports bra on under the shirt. He was still getting used to their odd clothing choices.

They all stood awkwardly at the side until Chilin, the very pregnant Arrancar in the belly dancer clothes came over and grabbed Rukia by the wrist. “Come, your people should come enjoy yourselves! You have new arrivals too!”

Yumichika stood up and stretched, seeing Chilin. He walked over. “Aren’t you adorable,” he said with a smirk.

Chilin looked at him. “Ah, you are very pretty too, come, my mate will no doubt enjoy your company. Is this bald one your mate?” he asked with a smile.

Yumichika actually blushed a bit but Ikkaku put an arm around his shoulder. “Yeah.”

Yumichika glanced at him and shook his head. “What is it you wish us to do?”

Chilin smirked and grabbed Rukia by the hand. “Come on!”

He led them over to a tent that was set up and inside Fereydun and Alma were seated with an Arrancar they hadn’t met, inhaling something very fragrant from a very large hookah that took up the center of the tent. “Come in,” Alma said, motioning the others into the large room. “Plenty room, please, join us. There are several mouth pieces left…”

Yumichika and Ikkaku sat down next to Fereydun who glanced at Yumichika and smiled. “Sso, hello,” he said. Chilin sat down on his lap and sucked from the hookah briefly.

“This is my mate, Fereydun,” Chilin said and snuggled him. “And that’s his brother Darius,” he said, pointing to the one sitting on the other side of Fereydun. He was a lot more masculine looking than anyone else in the tent, and had a shirt that looked to be stained with grease of some sort. “And Alma here is our mushroom expert,” he said and pointed to her. She was still wearing a latex bodysuit. Chilin smiled and looked back at Yumichika and Ikkaku again. “I didn’t get your names,” he said as he looked at Ikkaku and Yumichika.

“Ikkaku, and this is Yumichika,” Ikkaku said and glanced over where Renji and Rukia were sitting on the other side while Chad seemed to hang back. Orihime and Uryū had both taken a hose and were experimentally drawing in short breaths. Kira and Shūhei sat in the last open spots.

Chilin nodded. “They’re mates too,” he said to Fereydun.

“Well, I don’t know if I’d say…” Yumichika started but Ikkaku squeezed his ass. He glared at him.

“Yumi, don’t make such faces. It will turn you ugly,” he said with a smirk.

Yumichika huffed and grabbed the hose and sucked in some of the air through it. It was actually quite calming and refreshing.

“So, is this common when babies are born?” Rukia asked as she passed her hose to Renji.

“Sometimes,” Alma said with a sigh. “Babies aren’t born all that often. I mean, pairing up doesn’t happen a whole lot yet. We’ve been out here more than ten years now, and we’ve really just started having them with any frequency.”

“Why’s that?” Uryū asked with a concerned look.

“Matess must be equal powers,” Fereydun said, reaching up to rub some of the scale patches on his face. “Aizen created many Arrancar, and now, instincts have begun to take over, increasing the drive for procreation. Lower hollows have always had it, but it hasss taken time to begin having matches between us. That’sss why your friend is in trouble.”

The flap to the tent suddenly was pulled open and the group turned and stared.

“Nel?” Rukia asked as she stood up. Nel was in her Espada form, not the child form.

“Where is Itsygo?” she demanded. “Imelda said you were here because of Itsygo. Where is he?”

Rukia glanced at the others. “Um, well, you see, Aizen has him, there was an incident…”

“And he’s as crazy as Iris and Lel these days,” Chilin said with a smirk.

Nel’s eyes widened. “What? What did you do? Where is he now?”

Everyone felt the sudden rise in Nel’s reiatsu. Renji stood up. “Nel, right? You were the little Arrancar when we were here before that Ichigo kept safe?”

“Yes, where is my Itsygo?”

“Well, they messed him up,” Chilin said. “The Shinigami researcher, he made him a bit nutty. I’m sure you’ve felt those reiatsu surges from Las Noches, even when you were running around in Endless Chase…” he said with a shrug.

She looked from Chilin to the others. “Why? Why did you hurt Itsygo?”

“It was a complicated situation, and there was a grave mistake made…” Rukia started. Nel shook her head.

“I will find my Itsygo.”

She turned and took off from the doorway. “Wow, I’ve never seen Nel get angry,” Alma said. “She must like this Ichigo of yours.”

Rukia sighed. “Yeah, it is complicated,” she said with a sigh.

After a bit, they all emerged to see even more Arrancar milling around. Tables with foods were set up, including a ton of mushrooms. Everyone had gone to visit Imelda and Dima with the babies. More than once, Imelda chided her mate for doing things like one handed hand stands and trying to outrun some of the other speedy Arrancar in short races.

Renji looked at Rukia. “How…how is this place here?”

“I don’t know, but I know that what Kurotsuchi-taichou has done to them is wrong. They aren’t monsters, they’re just like anyone else. They just want to live and be left alone. Why is that so hard for them to be left to do?” she said as she watched Orihime playing with a toddling child Arrancar.

Renji shook his head. “We can’t just let this continue. What he did to Ichigo, what he’s done to them…how did we look the other way for so long?”

Rukia sighed deeply. “We didn’t want to see it, Renji. We didn’t want to see it. And that’s the problem. We have to look. To stop it.”

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Nel stormed into the tech area and found Pesche and Dondochakka were sitting in front of a television with some sort of game playing on it. It had a bouncing ball on it. She nodded to Electra who was standing near them. Electra looked at them.

“Boys, Nel needs you,” she said with a smile.

“We’re busy right now,” Pesche said. “I’m winning…”

“We have to go,” she said as she walked up to them. “You are not busy,” she said as she reached down and pulled the plug from the back of the console they were on. Both looked at her with shock. “We’re going to get Itsygo. He’s with Aizen.”

The two nodded reluctantly and headed out with Nel. She was determined to find Itsygo and help… She stopped, looking around and feeling a familiar reiatsu.

“That’s Itsygo!” she said and took off with her two fraccion behind her. She skidded to a stop in time to see a garganta closing and Ichigo’s reiatsu was simply gone. Her anger flared and she turned, nearly running into Aizen who was standing in the middle of the sand staring in the direction the garganta had been.

“Aizen!” Nel yelled out and looked at him. To her shock, she realized, his eyes were full of tears.

“They took him. They took him back to Soul Society. I will destroy every one of them between me and him,” he said without looking toward her. Seconds later, she realized the rest of the Espada had appeared around him. Nel knew something was different. Something was very different. They all had reiatsu that was tinged with Ichigo’s. She turned and stared at where the garganta had been and then looked at Aizen.

“There are Shinigami here, I can take you to them.”

Aizen nodded and glanced behind him. “Grimmjow, go with her. Bring me the Shinigami. Don’t kill them. I want answers before they die,” he said and disappeared in a Shunpo.

 

* * *

 

 


	8. When the Truth Explodes

 

[Year 11, Month 5, Day 16]

Ichigo found himself somewhere between sanity and madness as his eyes opened the morning after emerging from the hogyuku’s transformation. The fake versions of Shiro and Zangetsu no longer spoke to him; instead the real Shiro and Zangetsu spoke to him now. His mind still wandered off when he was thinking, and he saw things that shouldn’t be there, but on some level he knew this. It was closer to the way things had been during his solitary confinement. He was insane, but he knew he was insane. And he was furious. The anger had returned, settling into his gut like an open forge.

How dare they.

How dare they do this.

To anyone.

He rolled to the side and clutched whatever warm body was near him and sighed. It was nice. To be warm, and held. He didn’t want to be alone ever again. He felt someone run hands through his hair and he hummed, a bit of clarity settling into his mind for a moment.

“You awake, my dear?” Aizen’s voice was there.

“I’m awake,” he whispered, nuzzling into Aizen’s arms.

To think, Sōsuke Aizen was the person that had saved him. He was the person that caused it all, in a way. He was the one that made them think he’d murdered Jūshirō. But that was expected. What had been the horrible thing was that his friends believed it and refused to see past everything that spoke to his innocence. Aizen’s actions weren’t the problem; those in Soul Society’s actions were. Even his father had turned on him at a moment’s notice. But it was Aizen that had took him, in a state that Soul Society intended to destroy him, and helped him. Treated him and now…loved him. As weird as it was, it made sense. This was the first time he’d had enough clarity to think for more than a few seconds at a time. He smiled. It wasn’t much, he thought as the thoughts of things that weren’t there started to impinge. He’d take whatever clarity he could get.

Aizen smiled as he felt him curl around him. It was nice to know that he was still the same as he had been. He stroked his hands through his hair and marveled at the whole thing. He sighed and kissed the top of his head.

“My dear, we should get up,” he said and tipped his face upward.

“Are there sparrows?” Ichigo asked. “I’d like sparrows to fly through the rafters…” he muttered and sat up slowly.

Aizen smiled. “No, my dear, come, you need to dress…”

There was a flash as he turned and Aizen looked at Ichigo. He was staring at his hands, where two blades now rested. They were black as night, and both had a diamond at the top of them. From each of them fell a black chain that was hooked to the diamond pommel. The blades both had wicked looking sharp points, one a small, almost dagger sized blade, and the other the size of Ichigo’s normal blade. Aizen walked around and pulled Ichigo’s face up.

“My dear, they’ve given you your blades back, haven’t they?” he asked.

“Shiro says to be careful and not to use the short blade if I don’t want to hurt someone for real,” he said as he looked at the glinting black metal. “He says that I should wear a collar to connect them to so I don’t lose them when I fight…” He looked at them, jangling the chains. “I’m chained forever to you, to them, there’s no changing that…I have to stop the blackness in there, I have to stop it, or it’s going to erode the bubble, the bubble is shrinking, how do I stop it?” he asked, turning and looking at Aizen.

Aizen wasn’t sure how to answer that. “Ichigo, what is the bubble?”

He stared at him. “Sanity,” he whispered. “Only a bit, inside there, I have it but when I come back, I can’t…touch it…” As he spoke, he seemed to be reaching for something in front of him.

“Your inner world. The spirits protected your sanity the best they could, but there isn’t much left, is there?”

Ichigo shook his head. “No. The lightning nearly destroyed it…but the black is still raining down…” he said and dropped both the blades. He walked toward the mirror again, staring at his body after the transformation. He was still nude, having never dressed after Aizen brought him back to their room.

The round mark in the center of his chest was a black almost deep enough that it seemed to suck in the light around him. Thick, black lines ran from the top of the circle over his shoulders, and from the bottom of it around his sides. He turned and saw that they met in the middle of his back. There were red streaks down his face now, but if he concentrated, he could make them fade. He smiled and saw that there was another black circle, below his belly button, this one had black marks that extended up and over his hips, and down the front to wind down the inside of his thighs, meeting the ones that flowed over his hips and swirled down his legs to his ankles. He tipped his head up and felt the zero that was on his throat.

“Cero…” he whispered.

Aizen moved behind him, putting his hands on Ichigo’s hips. “Yes, cero. You are more powerful than any, even Starrk. My beautiful Cero,” he said as he spun Ichigo around and smiled at him.

“How?” Ichigo whispered, searching Aizen’s face. “I’m…not an alpha…”

Aizen smirked, leaning and kissing the zero on his throat gently. “No, but that is why you are more powerful than anyone else. You are everything to them. They are loyal to you, my dear. Every one of them is yours to command.”

Ichigo was trying to comprehend what had happened, but it was difficult to focus his mind. “I want to practice with my new blades,” he said as Aizen’s hands slid down his back.

“Hmm, yes, but I wish to enjoy my Cero first…” Aizen whispered into his ear, carefully tucking his hair back.

Ichigo’s mind seemed to clear and he responded, biting down on Aizen’s throat with a growl, fingers clutching into his shoulders. Aizen smiled, moving his hands to pry his head away from his bleeding neck. “Oh, yes, you still enjoy the blood, don’t you?” he said as Ichigo’s eyes followed the dripping crimson liquid.

Aizen slipped the kusodo off and walked back toward their bed. Ichigo’s eyes were on the blood and nowhere else as he followed him. He lunged forward and began licking and sucking at the wound. Aizen smiled. A little pain for his pleasure, he thought to himself. He shifted and dropped Ichigo to his back where he snarled at him, frustrated at being pulled away from the bleeding wound.

“Hush, now, you’ll get what you want,” Aizen said with a smirk. He watched as he did what he asked, even in this state of excitation and arousal. He was his master, now…

Aizen’s hands slid over his hips and down all the marks slowly, finding him unusually sensitive now to his touches. He slipped his hand down and slid his middle finger into him, finding it still warm and wet inside. It seemed that the beta instincts hadn’t gone away. That would certainly make things easier in the long run, he thought as he shifted. He slid up, moving his hands to his hips. He pulled himself free of the hakama and slid forward into his heat.

He arched under him, moaning and growling at the same time. Aizen leaned forward, and Ichigo immediately moved to bite and suck on his neck again. It didn’t take long before Ichigo’s body spasmed around him and Ichigo’s voice shifted to a more hollow sound as he fell from the pleasurable crest. Aizen followed him, clutching him now against his chest. They sat there panting and embraced for a long moment before Aizen began kissing Ichigo’s face. The red markings had reappeared, more than before. It seemed that the more he let go, the more red lines appeared on his face. They slowly faded as Ichigo’s heartrate began to come down.

Aizen lifted him easily, especially in the fugue haze he was in at the moment, and took him to the baths. They stayed there for a long time before he dressed him again. He found a collar that had the metal rings imbedded that would be necessary to attach his Zanpakutō to them. It fell below the zero on his throat, and had a ring on either side. He attached the long blade to the right and handed it to him.

“There, my dear. I’m sure Nnoitra or Grimmjow will want to play,” he said.

Ichigo stared at the blade and smiled at Aizen. “Yes…” he said and zipped off in a sonido.

Aizen followed, though, just to make sure he didn’t get into trouble. He’d taken the small blade and put it on his hip in case something happened and Ichigo needed to really fight.

Over the next couple weeks, Ichigo ended up being a constant companion of the Espada. He would spar and fight with all of them, and some of the fraccion as well. Of course, a sparring match with any of his mated alphas usually ended with some sort of harsh fucking wherever they were sparring at, sometimes with more than one of them. Aizen found it amusing to watch them, but at the end of the day, Ichigo returned to his bed, and to him.

[Year 11, Month 6, Day 1]

“They’re here,” Grimmjow said as he stood beside Aizen watching the sands.

“Yeah. Kuchiki and Abarai, and Ichigo’s group of ‘friends’. There are reports of other groups of Shinigami incursions. Kuchiki’s group is here to take him back; the others are a distraction,” Aizen noted. He glanced behind him. Ichigo was sitting on the floor at the base of the wall drawing in red paint on the floor.

Grimmjow nodded. “What should we do?”

“Let them see what their friend has become. Warn Szayel that he will probably need some treatment when he’s done. I don’t see him holding back once he sees them. Bring Nnoitra, I want you to stand the wall with him in case they get the upper hand. I don’t expect them to, but I’d rather make sure he can’t be brought down. I’ll pull him off once the point has been made to them.”

“Are you sure that’s the best idea?” Grimmjow asked with a frown.

“Yes, go on,” he told Grimmjow.

Aizen dropped down to the floor beside Ichigo and he looked up and smiled at him. “Master! Pretty red,” he sad and Aizen saw he’d drawn a bunch of different symbols in the paint.

“Yes, love, your old friends from Soul Society are at the wall. If you want, you can go play with them, and you can see them bleed for you, for what they did to you,” he whispered.

Ichigo’s eyes lit up. “Oh, oh yes,” he said and took off toward the wall. Aizen followed, watching in amusement as Nnoitra and Grimmjow bantered back and forth with him. After he let Ichigo fight long enough that he was injured he went down and called him back. He resisted him at first, of course, because who could blame him? He hefted him and left the Shinigami confused and took him to Szayel.

“Oh my, now what?” Szayel said as he sighed. “How did you do this?”

“Cut it, that Rukia bitch did it…” he muttered. “Well her and Renji,” he muttered as he growled, eyes flashing red for a moment.

Szayel looked up at Aizen. “They came for him?”

“Yes, but we showed them that he was not theirs any longer. But the fight left him a bit wounded,” Aizen said as he petted a hand through Ichigo’s hair where it was coming loose. He was sucking thoughtfully on his hand where it was bleeding and looking around the room. Szayel shook his head.

“It is a good thing he’s an Arrancar now,” he muttered and injected him with the serum he’d created that triggered Ichigo’s instant regeneration.

After about an hour, he was healed of most of it. He was now playing with the edges of the cover on the bed. He kept muttering about something. Aizen came back and found him sitting on the floor painting in red paint again. Two things had made an appearance throughout Las Noches in every room where Ichigo had to be occupied. Red paint and paper, and some sort of sweets. He looked up to see Grimmjow come in the see how he was.

“Fix him up?” he asked with a smirk.

“Yeah, want to take him for a while? I’m worried about the other Shinigami, and I want him monitored in case it triggers any relapses,” Aizen said and clapped Grimmjow on the back.

Grimmjow nodded. “Got it, boss,” he said as he knelt in front of Ichigo. “Yo, Cero, baby, want to come play in the garden with me?”

Ichigo looked up and grinned. “Yeah, flowers!” he said and jumped to his feet. Luckily, Grimmjow was ready for him and snatched him around the waist, stopping him from taking off by himself. There was no telling where he’d end up without someone with him. What he called flowers were decidedly not flowers sometimes.

“Whoa,” Grimmjow said as he squirmed in his grip. “Nah, we go together, okay?”

Ichigo looked at him and smiled. “Kiss kitty?”

Grimmjow nodded, leaning down and kissing his lips only to have him leap on him, holding onto his hair and nearly knocking him to the ground. Grimmjow heard Szayel giggling behind him. Damn he was so unpredictable, he thought as he put his hands under his ass to keep him from pulling his hair out. He languidly tangled tongues with him for a long time, feeling his hands flexing in the sides of his hair until he pulled back and grinned. “Kitty kisses!” he said and put his head on Grimmjow’s chest.

“Fuck, why do you have to do adorable shit like that,” Grimmjow said shaking his head and walking out with him clutched in his arms.

“You know, they do things to endear them to you,” Szayel commented before he left the door.

“Huh?” Grimmjow said and looked at him.

“Betas. It makes sense. The Arrancar are evolved hollows, so the instincts of evolved betas would have to change. Instead of just shaking their ass at an alpha, they have to do something to make them invested in them. So you seem to be the target of his spontaneous sex and kiss thing. He likes to randomly try to suck my cock in the middle of meetings…can be distracted, but he’s fascinated with my hollow hole…” he said with a snort.

Grimmjow sighed, letting Ichigo nuzzle deeper into him. He didn’t want to admit it but as much as he liked rough fighting and fucking, he also loved it when he just held him. He knew Starrk was like that with him. He’d found Ichigo more than once piled in the middle of his pillow mound sound asleep with Starrk. He sighed.

“This is fucked up,” he muttered.

“What is?” Szayel said, coming around and putting a candy in Ichigo’s mouth. He smiled and licked his fingers before Szayel took them away.

“He’s changed us all. You see that right?” he muttered.

“Yeah, sure did. Him or the hogyuku…not sure which or if it’s both of them…” Szayel said with a sigh. “I actually found myself missing Illfordt today…”

Grimmjow nodded. “Is it…is it that he’s filling the emptiness?”

“I think so.”

Grimmjow sighed, putting Ichigo down as he wriggled out of his arms. How could this happen? He had no idea as he followed him as he skipped down the hallway toward the gardens. Grimmjow found himself smiling. What was this?

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

 Present

[Year 11, Month 6, Day 6]

“I think we’re going to have go out there,” Grimmjow said with a sigh as he watched the two groups of Shinigami converging on Las Noches.

Aizen sighed. “I can’t send him out now…not in his condition. Try to keep him here, Grimmjow. I’ll try to get rid of them.”

He turned to see Ichigo was sitting on Ulquiorra’s lap, facing him and feeding him bits of fruit off his breakfast plate in the observation room. Ever since the incursions started, he’d tried to keep Ichigo inside Las Noches, but they were becoming more insistent. He sighed and went over to him.

“Ichigo? I’m going out. The people from Soul Society keep trying to break into Las Noches. I’m going to go tell them they need to leave us alone. But just in case, here,” he said and clicked the short blade onto the ring in collar. He leaned forward and kissed his cheek.  Ichigo played with the short blade with a wistful look.

“Kill?” he asked, looking up at Aizen.

“If you wish,” he said with a smile. “I will.”

“No kill,” he said. “Not them,” he said sadly.

Aizen had been afraid of that. “Alright, my love, no killing.”

He stood up and headed out to the wall. He appeared at the top and looked down where Kenpachi and Shunsui stood with their divisions at their back.

“Aizen!” Shunsui yelled. “Return Ichigo Kurosaki to us!”

“He doesn’t want to come back to the people that hurt him,” he said and crossed his arms before he flash stepped down to the bottom of the wall.

“He needs help,” Shunsui said.

“He does not need anything from you. Leave us.”

“We’re not leaving him with you. You’ve already done something with several of our teams,” Shunsui said. “Are they dead?”

“I have captured none of your people. And we only wish to be left alone.”

“Master!” Aizen heard and looked up, narrowly missing Ichigo leaping down from the wall. He stumbled and smiled at him. “Was worried, you didn’t come back,” he said with a pout and then looked at the two black clad Shinigami. “Why haven’t they left yet?” he asked, glaring at them as he dropped into a crouch, drawing both blades slowly. The heavy chains jangled around him.

“You turned him.”

“I had to,” Aizen said as Ichigo smirked and his eyes flashed redly. “He was dying.”

“To let him die would have been a kindness,” Shunsui said as he watched him.

“Master they need to bleed…can I play…please…just a little?” he asked. “I won’t kill them too much, promise…”

Behind them, Grimmjow, Ulquiorra, and Nnoitra all dropped down. Ichigo turned and ran to Grimmjow first. “Kitty! Kitty kiss!” he screamed and Grimmjow avoided both the blades as he leaped into him and grabbed his hair again. Grimmjow growled, but moved hold him up. He pushed him back.

“Not now, Ichi-babe!” Nnoitra growled from beside him. “You need to go back in, leave this to us.”

Ichigo leaned over, dropping his head upside down in Grimmjow’s grip. He grunted to keep from dropping him as he bent completely backward and put his hands on the sand and stared at Shunsui and Zaraki. He flipped then, almost taking Grimmjow with him, but he let go of him.

“Goddamn, Ichi…” he grumbled, wiping blood off his mouth again. “Will you quit fucking biting me?”

Ichigo smirked. “Kitty kiss tastes good,” he said as he licked the blood of his own lips.

Ulquiorra moved up and grabbed Ichigo by the braid, pulling him backward. “Remain still,” he commanded.

Ichigo looked up. “Ulqui! Don’t be so mean,” he said and crossed his arms and then flopped on his belly in the sand. He took the short blade and began to draw in the sand, completely ignoring everyone around him and talking under his breath.

“What…what have you done to him?” Shunsui asked.

“Me? Fixed what you did to him, as much as I could, but that kind of damage doesn’t just go away. I’ve spent six months just trying to get him to stop harming himself. In doing so, though, he’s become…important to us. So we ask you leave us alone. We have no intention of leaving Hueco Mundo. Just let us be.”

“We can’t do that,” Shunsui said with a frown. “Not with his power, he’s out of control.”

“He’s under my control.” Aizen turned back. “Ichigo!”

Ichigo’s head shot up and he scrambled to his feet and dashed over to Aizen in a sonido and dropped to his knees at his feet. He nudged Aizen with his head and stared at the other Shinigami. “Can I play now?”

“Are you leaving us?” Aizen asked.

“We’re taking him back.”

Ichigo stood up then. “No! I’m not going back! Master, no, don’t let them take me from you!”

“I won’t let them have you, my love,” Aizen said as he glared at them. “You belong to us now, and none of your mates or I will let them have you.”

“Mates?” Shunsui asked, frowning deeply as he glanced behind him. Several squads were converging on their location.

“Mates!” Ichigo snarled. “Don’t say that! They aren’t yours!” he screamed and before Aizen could move, he was off.

He appeared above Shunsui and spun, using the rotation to nearly sever one of the surprised captain’s arms. He stepped back and held up his arm where part of his shihakuso and the pink kimono was shredded. Ichigo had dropped to a crouch, the chain on the long blade wrapped up his arms, and the one on the short blade loose.

“I am not going back!” he screamed and flew at Zaraki this time, the short blade flying out in front of him before he followed it. The short blade bounced off Zaraki’s blade as he stared in surprise. Ichigo’s eyes were glowing red. “No one is taking me back!” he screamed again and this time zipped under Zaraki’s blades and up his chest to go up and over his shoulder, leaving long gouges in his chest as he went.

Shunsui moved to get around him, but he found his blades met by Grimmjow’s. “No, game boy,” Grimmjow growled. “You leave him the fuck alone,” he growled, pushing back and sending Shunsui sliding backward in the sand. “You dare even touch him!”

Nnoitra’s attack nearly severed Shunsui’s arm as he joined into the fight, six arms and his heavy spiritual pressure sending several of the lower Shinigami that were approaching to the ground. “You dare fucking show up here after what you did,” he growled out.

Ulquiorra had engaged with Zaraki, and Ichigo had injured several of the lower seated Shinigami that had come, when he screamed in fury. He’d been wrapped in some sort of ribbons that kept him from moving.

“I have him,” Kurotsuchi’s voice came from a shadow on the ground that formed into the twelfth division captain slowly. “Let’s go back,” he said as he opened the portal and drug him through it.

Aizen stared in disbelief as they had taken him. When Nel appeared he sent her to get the other Shinigami. He was probably going to destroy half of Soul Society in order to get Ichigo back.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Kurotsuchi was quite pleased with himself as he released the boy’s bindings as he was put into the cell. He looked over to see Ukitake had come into the room.

Ichigo was screaming and beating on the clear barriers around him. Of course, it was the same cell he’d been kept in before. It was no surprise he was agitated.

“Turn on the sound,” Ukitake asked.

“Let me out!” he heard as soon as he could hear Ichigo. “Let me out, I have to get out, let me out! I don’t want to be alone again!”

“Ichigo, please, calm down,” Ukitake said as calmly as he could. Despite his attempts to remain calm and objective, seeing Ichigo again hurt him. To know that this is what had happened because of him was almost too much for him to stand.

Ichigo put both hands on the barrier in front of him. “Let me out. I have to get out. Please. Let me out.”

“No one is going to hurt you this time, Ichigo. We’ve brought you home now.”

“No, I want to go back! This isn’t home! I want my kitty! I want my puppy! I want Ulquie! Please, I need them!” he said and started to sob. “I want my Master…”

Ukitake bit his lip. “Ichigo, we’re going to help you. I promise.”

“I don’t want help! I want my mates…” he said morosely as he slid down to his knees. “I need them.” He dropped his head into both his hands and began sobbing again.

“Ukitake-taichou…” Kurotsuchi said and looked over. “You may want to see this.”

Ukitake turned and looked at what he was showing him. “What am I looking at?”

“He’s…well, he’s with a child…” he said and looked at him. “He turned him into an Arrancar, and one of them impregnated him.”

“Get rid of it, then,” Ukitake said. “He cannot handle such a thing.”

“I can’t,” Kurotsuchi said with a frown as he looked at the readings. “I can try to come up with a way, but whatever it is, it is intertwined with his reiatsu. They’re one now. I’ll kill him if I try to abort the child.”

“How long do we have?” Ukitake asked with a sigh.

Kurotsuchi shook his head. “I’ve never had a hollow impregnated successfully. It seems that it was possible, but there lacked a power equivalency in my experiments before…”

“This is because of your experiments,” Ukitake growled at him before turning back to Ichigo.

Ichigo looked up and put his hands on the barrier. His face had deep red markings now. “Please, I’m scared…let me out of this…please…don’t leave me alone!”

“Turn off the sound,” Ukitake said and walked away. He couldn’t watch any longer.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Rukia certainly didn’t expect the massive burst of reiatsu that came toward them. She also didn’t expect it when she, Renji, Chad, and Ikkaku all went flying through the wall behind them. She heard yelling and screaming and managed to extract herself from the rubble as she saw Nel had returned with her fraccion who were all three trying to hold back a fully released Grimmjow.

“Stop!” all of them heard and they saw Imelda storming into the large common room they had been in. Even Grimmjow paused to look at her. “What is happening?”

Nel looked at her. “They took him back.”

Imelda looked at Grimmjow who was glaring with barely restrained rage at the Shinigami. “They got to Ichigo.”

“Yes, they fucking got to him and I’m going to fucking kill every fucking Shinigami I see until I get to him!” he growled. “I don’t give a fuck how many I have to go through!”

Rukia glanced up as Kira, Shūhei, and Yumichika all came running with several other Arrancar on their heels. Imelda walked up to Grimmjow and put her hands on his face and spoke to him in a whisper for a long time until he nodded and shook off Pesche to release his resurrección. She turned to the Shinigami. “Come,” she said as she put an arm around Grimmjow’s shoulders and led them all to a different room. It was set up like a conference room with a large table and seats. She sat Grimmjow down and spoke to him again. He nodded and crossed his arms with a huff.

She sent someone after a tray of drinks and snacks and then turned to then. Uryū came in a few seconds later, having been summoned from his mushroom hunting with Alma. He was covered in much, but she’d given him a set of rubber pants at least. Kriya came in a short time later with Andresta. As soon as Andresta saw Grimmjow he tried to bolt, only to be blocked by Moab.

“Okay, seems we’re all here,” Imelda said as she walked around the table. I’ve convinced Grimmjow to hold off on mass murder of Shinigami until we’ve had a discussion. Also, I believe Nel says your instructions were to _not_ kill anyone.”

“Never stopped me before. Aizen-san wouldn’t be that angry as long as I brought one or two back alive…” he growled, glaring at each of the Shinigami in turn.

Suddenly Andresta ran to Grimmjow and threw himself on the floor before him, surprising him. He looked up with teary eyes. “Please! Kill me, I beg you! Take my life in revenge!”

Grimmjow sniffed the air and cocked his head to the side before his hand reached out and snatched the prostrate Arrancar up by the throat. “You’re one of them…” he muttered.

“Please! You are within your rights to kill me!”

“Stop this, Andresta! Grimmjow!” Imelda said with a sigh. Grimmjow looked at her and arched one blue brow.

“It’s my right to kill this little bastard. I have first claim, even if I spare him, five others have the claim to kill him.”

Imelda nodded. “I know it is, Grimmjow, please, do not. He has suffered greatly for what he was forced to do. I will deal with the others, but I ask you, for the moment, do not kill him.”

Grimmjow growled and tossed him to the floor where he continued to sob into his arms. “Fine,” he growled and looked away from him.

“What is happening?” Orihime said from where she saw quietly beside the others.

Nel spoke up. “Your armies have abandoned you to Hueco Mundo. They got what they came for, Itsygo, and they’ve left.”

Renji blinked. “They left? All of them?” he said and looked at the others. “They just…abandoned us?”

“Of course they fucking did, idiot!” Grimmjow growled. “You think they fucking care about any one of you? After what they did to Cero?”

Rukia nodded. “I…I can’t…”

“Don’t fucking talk to me, you midget bitch,” Grimmjow growled and slammed both hands on the table. “Don’t you even deem it okay to speak to me. After what you did to your best friend. He told us. Took six months to decipher the fucked up shit he was saying, you know. Six months to even understand what the _fuck_ happened to him. Six goddamned months of trying to keep him from ripping his guts open or his throat and practically dismembering half the Arrancar he came across because he was so fucking scared out of his mind of what they were going to do to him!”

Rukia had paled considerably, as had most the others, but Grimmjow continued. “He fucking has to have one of us with him or he fucking tries to hurt himself, even now as an Arrancar! He fights like a goddamned demon and we can’t stop him sometimes, and Szayel has to put him back together! Severed hands, arms, legs, you have no idea! Water’s the only thing that can calm him down most the time, and then Sōsuke has to hold him while he’s in it so he doesn’t accidently drown himself!”

Grimmjow stood now, shifting without even thinking into resurrección and his claws extending into the surface of the table. “He is ours, not yours. You turned on him, and we fucking picked up the pieces and put him together again! You were going to kill him! You don’t care about him for shit other than what he represents! You want him back because you think we’ll use his power against you! No one uses him anymore; do you understand me? He’s not a weapon! He’s not a thing! You let this happen! You don’t love him like you say! We do!”

Imelda had come up and put her arm around Grimmjow’s back and now they heard her as she whispered. “Grimmjow, please, this isn’t helping get him back to you. You need to calm yourself. I know how much it hurts to lose your mate, just sit, let your resurrección go, please…”

Grimmjow nodded, closing his eyes and releasing his resurrección again and sitting down. He was looking away though.

“Mate?” Rukia whispered.

Grimmjow narrowed his eyes at her. “Yes, mate, you bunch of fucking idiots. It took six of us to keep him alive. Six of us to mark him and claim him to remove the poison in his spirit because of your fucking researcher forcing lesser hollows to mate him,” he said as he glared at the still supplicant looking Andresta.

The Shinigami looked at Imelda who nodded. “I feared that was the case when Andresta told us that he’d been forced to mate him. Who?”

“Starrk, me, Ulquiorra, Nnoitra, Szayel, and Jatya. Jatya was one like Andresta. Ichigo forgave him, and took him as a mate, so…” Grimmjow sighed and glanced at Andresta who was looking up. “None of us will kill him, Imelda, don’t worry. It would make Ichigo sad if we did. He doesn’t want us killing anyone.”

Imelda patted his back. “Alright, you said that Aizen wanted you to bring them to him?”

“Yeah, he’s going to get him back. We are. We’re not going to let that fucking kill them.”

“Them,” Imelda said with a narrowed eye. “He’s…oh Grimmjow, that’s why you’re so upset. You said you were his first claim.”

Grimmjow shifted uncomfortably. “Szayel just told us today, he doesn’t even know yet. Not that it matters, he wouldn’t understand it unless he’s lucid. But I was going to tell him. Then the fucking Shinigami showed up, and I…”

“Tell him what?” Renji asked as he looked at him, fearing he knew the answer.

“That he’s carrying my kit,” Grimmjow said, his anger giving way to exhaustion. “I’m the first one that claimed him, the chances of him carrying my kit were the highest, of course. I knew it was likely, he’s been rather…clingy to me lately.” He reached up and touched the sore spot on his lip where he’d bitten him a short while ago. “He could have conceived a child with any of us, but…Szayel confirmed it was mine this time. They…betas…have some say in it, force of will.”

Rukia’s hands when to her mouth. “But…Kurotsuchi-taichou…that’s what he was trying to do the whole time, get him to become pregnant by a hollow, to watch the birthing process, to experiment with it…if he’s…”

Renji nodded. “He’s in more danger now than he was. But he’ll keep him alive, if only for that reason,” he said and glanced at the others. She nodded. “Take us to Aizen. We’re going to help you get Ichigo back.”

* * *


	9. When They Face the Harm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the shortness of this chapter, it will probably gain length in rewrites, I just ran out of energy and could embellish no more!

Imelda sighed and looked at the group. It was up to her to decide who she was going to take. Obviously, she was taking Grimmjow. He wasn’t about to let a team go to Soul Society without him. She rubbed a hand over her forehead.

“I would like some of the Shinigami to remain here,” she said softly. “I hate to say it, but I fear that if you all return, your people will attempt to imprison us upon entry. So you aren’t expected to stay, but…I would ask if some of you would.”

Renji and Rukia exchanged a glance. “We should return, since I’m a lieutenant and her brother is my captain. Ikkaku and Yumichika, would you like to stay here?” Renji asked, glancing at them.

“I think we could. I’m quite enjoying these Arrancar,” Yumichika said with a smirk at Ikkaku.

Kira looked up. “I’d prefer to stay,” he said with a sigh. “I want to help the ones in your medical if I can.”

Shūhei nodded. “I’d also like to stay. There is a great deal of potential here, and I’d like to examine things closely.” Shūhei didn’t mention that he was growing attached to those in Agartha.

“Very well, come,” she said, motioning the two Shinigami and Grimmjow after her. She stopped and turned to look at them. “I am entrusting you to lead this,” she said as she looked at Rukia and Renji. “I will not submit to your people’s control. I have my children here, and my mate. I may seem a very calm and passive individual, but I warn you, as you’ve seen with Grimmjow, our reactions are extreme when we are separated from our mates.”

Rukia nodded and watched as Maxi, the strange owl Arrancar came up to join them with Nel. “I understand, Imelda. I can offer no guarantees on what my people will do, though. I will do all I can.”

Imelda nodded and glanced at Grimmjow. “And you. You must control yourself. We have no way of knowing what they will do to him if we are not careful.”

Grimmjow nodded and sighed deeply. “I know. I know.” He ducked his head and tucked his thumbs into the band of hakama he wore.

Imelda nodded. “Please, lead the way,” she said to Rukia and Renji.

Moments later, they stepped out into the Seireitei. It didn’t take long for them to be surrounded by black clad Shinigami, with Shunsui and Byakuya appearing at the head.

“Nii-sama!” Rukia called, running up with both hands raised out in front of the Arrancar. “Wait! Please!”

Byakuya and Shunsui both had weapons drawn and eyes narrowed at the four Arrancar standing behind Rukia and Renji. “What is this?” Shunsui asked.

“Diplomacy,” Imelda said as she stepped forward. She bowed slightly. “I come representing the Agarthan Arrancar of Hueco Mundo. Grimmjow comes representing the Arrancar of Las Noches. It is in all of our best interests to try and find a solution to this situation that does not result in all out violence. Doing so will cause many people to die. I am sure you are aware that there are sufficient forces in Las Noches alone to do great damage to your Soul Society, and that is not counting those that reside in Agartha below it. When two groups like ours clash, the damage is great. I would like to avoid that.”

Shunsui and Byakuya exchanged a glance. “Where are our other people?” Shunsui asked.

“Safe, they chose to stay in Agartha when we returned,” Imelda said, glancing at Rukia for confirmation.

“It is true, Nii-sama. We’ve been with the Agarthans, and they’ve treated us very well. We’ve seen a lot, and I think it is important to talk to them,” Rukia said and watched as both the captains seemed to have relaxed. “Imelda asked if they wanted to return, and they didn’t want to. Kira and Shūhei are both helping with some medical issues, and Yumichika and Ikkaku have been studying some of the fighting techniques they have.”

Byakuya nodded. “I’ll inform the head captain. Remain here.”

“I want to see Ichigo, now,” Grimmjow said, both hands fists at his side. Beside him, Nel reached out and gripped his wrist. She didn’t speak, though. She merely glared at the others. “I want to see that he’s safe.”

Shunsui tilted his head to the side. “That’s impossible.”

“You filthy son of a bitch, if you don’t…” he growled.

“Grimmjow, please,” Imelda said, putting a hand on his chest. “Do not get upset. We need to deal with this peacefully if we can. It is in the demands I will relay to their leader.”

“If they don’t let me see him…” he growled, eyes flashing at Shunsui. Nel also centered her glare on him as well.

Shunsui’s confusion was indescribable at the moment. What he was seeing was real. There was a fury in the Arrancar before him that was true emotion. It wasn’t something he was doing under orders. He actually cared about what happened to Ichigo and his distress came from not being sure if he was safe.

“He’s safe,” Shunsui said.

“He isn’t safe as long as he’s in that fucking research Shinigami’s hands!” Grimmjow growled. “He’s carrying my kit, and I swear to all three worlds, if you fucking do something to our kit, I will gut you!”

Byakuya returned. “The head captain wants us to bring them to meet.”

“I want to see Ichigo.” Grimmjow’s fury was seemingly permanently etched into his brows.

Shunsui nodded. “We can request to have him brought to the meeting room,” he said finally.

“That is satisfactory,” Imelda said and glanced at the infuriated Grimmjow who nodded curtly.

They were escorted to a large room with a conference table and seated at one end. A few moments later, the head captain and his lieutenant came in to stand at the end. The rest of the captains filtered into the room, all seating themselves. The head captain locked eyes with Imelda.

“I am Sou Taichou Yamamoto. Do you lead your people?” he asked her.

“The Agarthan Arrancar have no leader. I simply am one of the more diplomatic of my people.” She glanced at Grimmjow. “And one of the few that Grimmjow will listen to. I believe that you are familiar with Nelliel. This is Maxi, another of the Agarthan Arrancar who I brought with me. Grimmjow represents Las Noches, and upon finding that Shinigami had come to Agartha was brought to us by Nel. He has been reasonable, and I believe his request to see his mate is not unwarranted. Ichigo carries his young. It is only appropriate.”

The head captain was quiet for a long moment. He turned to Kurotsuchi. “Retrieve Ichigo.”

“You can’t seriously…” he started.

“I ordered you to retrieve the boy. Do so, Kurotsuchi-taichou.”

Kurotsuchi glared at them and left the room. The head captain turned back to them. “Tell me what it is that you have come here for.”

“To return Ichigo to his mates in Hueco Mundo, and perhaps form some sort of alliance with Soul Society. We offer no reason to attack us, and in turn, if we can come to a reasonable agreement, there is no reason for our people to attack you,” Imelda said.

“You request much. Why should we come to this sort of agreement?” Yamamoto asked.

Imelda sighed. “Ichigo is one of ours now. He is an Arrancar, and he is a beta, meaning that his protection is part of every fiber of our being. Every alpha in Hueco Mundo would come to the defense of a beta of his strength. I would also fight to return him to his place with his mates, especially as one that will give birth in the near future. My own mate recently birthed twins, and I will do what I must to return to him. However, I will not watch another alpha lose their mate.”

“Your mate?” Ukitake asked as he looked at her.

“My mate gave birth recently. He and the twins are still in Agartha. I believe your Shinigami named…Yumichika had taken a liking to playing with them,” Imelda said with a nod.

“Yer the girl, though,” Zaraki said with a frown.

Imelda sighed deeply but before she could answer, Rukia spoke up. “The gender doesn’t matter, the beta gives birth in a pair. Hollows have no real gender, only the gender they express.”

The door opened and they all winced as they heard a shriek as Ichigo broke away from Kurotsuchi’s grip and lunged at Grimmjow. Grimmjow’s face lit up and he caught him, the seat he was in sliding backward from the force Ichigo slammed into him with.

“Kitty, kitty, kitty,” Ichigo muttered as he proceeded to wrap every limb around him as tightly as he could.

“Hey, there, there, easy,” Grimmjow said as he adjusted him to straddle his lap. He managed to pull him onto his lap and unhook his feet from behind him. “I’m here, I’m here,” he whispered.

“So scared, they put me in there, I was crying for kitty,” he sobbed into his shoulder. “Don’t let them put me back in there, please, I hate it, I hate it…”

Grimmjow’s hands flexed around his back and he looked almost in tears himself. “Shh, just settle down, we’re trying to work this out, okay?”

Ichigo’s only response was to grip him tighter and heave a shaky sob into his shoulder again. “I know about it,” he whispered then. “I feel it.”

Grimmjow nodded and bit his lip. “Okay, Ichi-baby, it’s okay,” he said even though he didn’t believe it at the moment. All he knew, though, was that he was not going to let them take him away, no matter what. He had him in his arms, and he was not going to let him go again.

“Explain what has occurred to the substitute Shinigami.”

Rukia took a breath and stood. “I do not know all the details that but Grimmjow will be able to fill in, I am certain. What we found was that these Arrancar had left Las Noches to form an independent underground city. While we were there, we were treated well. Many of those that had left Las Noches had done so to get away from Aizen. However, they have several Arrancar that are…damaged.” She glanced at Kurotsuchi and back at the others. “Kurotsuchi’s experimental subjects weren’t all destroyed. Some were released into Hueco Mundo.”

“Impossible!” Kurotsuchi exclaimed. “All subjects were destroyed.”

“They would have been, if Aaroniero hadn’t been here pretending to be a member of the twelfth division,” Grimmjow said, still rubbing Ichigo’s back as he clung to him. “Aaroniero released them.”

“They ended up being in various states of functionality when they came to us,” Imelda said, looking at the researcher, now understanding much by looking at him. “Some, like Jatya who became one of Ichigo’s mates, were healed by the hogyuku, but there are still consequences. Others were left mute or with severe mental issues like our Iris.”

“Continue. What has occurred in Las Noches that has changed Sōsuke Aizen’s mission to destroy us,” Yamamoto said.

“This little shit,” Grimmjow muttered, hands threading through his hair. “It wasn’t supposed to happen,” he said in response to the curious looks. “No, it wasn’t. Aizen wanted him to use him. Then I’ll be damned if Aizen started to care about him. We figured out that that bastard,” he said and nodded toward Kurotsuchi. “He’d put low powered hollows with him and forced them to mate him. Doing so caused his spiritual energy to become…poisoned. Ya can’t do that. A powerful beta can’t be taken by a lower powered alpha or it kills ‘em. It’s just the way it is. Only way to deal with it was to overpower it. So we had to mate him. Our reiatsu had to destroy the poisoned reiatsu. It took six of us, but we managed it. And to make sure that he didn’t die, Aizen used the hogyuku on him in hopes to heal him.” Grimmjow sighed. “It helped, but it didn’t cure him completely. He’s still fucking crazy as a fuck, thanks to what you fucking people did to him.”

“What do you mean by that?” Toshiro asked, eyes locked on the figure that didn’t look like the Ichigo he remembered at all.

Grimmjow sighed and spun Ichigo around to face them. His eyes bulged and he tried to turn back. “Stop. Be still.”

Ichigo’s body froze and he blinked rapidly, staring at the others. His hands clung tightly to Grimmjow’s where they were wrapped around his waist.

“Tell them what happened,” Grimmjow said. “I know you don’t want to, but you need to. Tell them.”

“Raining fire on the bubble, was breaking, and poisoned, it broke almost but they got there, swimming through the fires…” he said panting.

“Ichigo, no. Not like that,” Grimmjow said quietly as he clutched his hands tighter around his waist. “Clear. Focus for a little while. I promise, I’ll give you something to play with if you do this for me, Ichi-baby, okay? Something red to play in.”

Ichigo’s eyes lit up immediately and he tilted his head to the side. “Promise, kitty?”

“Promise. But you gotta give it a try.”

Ichigo closed his eyes and bit down on his lip, so it was obvious he was trying to do what Grimmjow asked. His brows knitted together and he opened his eyes, but this time they were bleeding into the black and gold.

“Not much time,” he muttered in calmer voice. It was almost recognizable as his own to those around the table. “Shiro and Zangetsu…swam through the water…my insanity…” he said haltingly blinking as the black tried to edge out of his eyes for a moment. “They found what remained of my sanity. Wasn’t much, just a little, but they hid inside it. Appears as a bubble in my inner world. A bubble in a sea of black. There was lightning. The poisoned reiatsu. It tried to burst the bubble, but Sōsuke understood. The mating cycle destroyed it. Couldn’t stop it; was dying already.” Ichigo’s breath sped up for a second as the black started bleeding slowly from his left eye toward the right. “Losing it, losting it….”

“Do as much as you can,” Grimmjow said as he gently stroked Ichigo’s head.

“Dying. I felt it. The world was crushing me. Butterflies… no. No. I just wanted to not be scared,” he whispered, blinking as the black and yellow was almost gone from his left. “Blood was water, still is, flowing life and everything…red.” He swallowed and gripped hard to Grimmjow’s hands. “They make me sane. They’re the only ones that make it better…” he panted out as the color started leeching from his right eye. “Almost gone, bubble bursting in the red bloody rain…” he shook the thought away again. “No, I can’t…I know I’m crazy. I know it, and I have clarity now and then, and it…it all makes no sense…but I know the hogyuku…answers to me…”

As he said the last, the black bled out of his right eye and he looked up suddenly and started snatching at something unseen, muttering about “them escaping”. Grimmjow patted his leg. “Okay, baby, promise you,” he muttered.

To the surprise of everyone except the other Arrancar, Grimmjow used his teeth to cut open his palm. Ichigo’s attention shifted to the bleeding wound as Grimmjow moved his hand over the white tile of the floor. He let the blood drip until there was a decent pile before he close his hand into a fist and swatted Ichigo’s leg.

“There you go, I promised.”

Ichigo scrambled off Grimmjow’s lap with a near screech of glee and dropped to his stomach. He started humming to himself and drawing in the blood with his finger.

“What the…” Renji asked as he looked up at Grimmjow.

“We usually keep cans of red pain or red pencil around Las Noches anywhere he’s going to be. That and sweets. Only two things that will occupy him for any length of time,” Grimmjow explained as he watched Ichigo draw then scribble the drawings out and start again. “Has to be red, though. Nothing else works. Paint’s better than entrails, though. That was a mess…”

“What was a mess? Entrails?” Shinji asked with a frown from his position.

“Because of the forced mating with hollows,” Grimmjow said as he glared at Kurotsuchi. “He would attack and destroy any alpha he ran into that was rutting. Didn’t matter what we did at first, he’d just fucking tackle them and rip them to shreds with his bare hands. No claws, no powers, he was that scared of them that it didn’t matter. I mean, it was better than his tendency to rip his own fingers and such off.”

The captains were quiet for a long time. “We will have to discuss this among ourselves. You will be shown to temporary lodgings. Please return Kurosaki…”

Grimmjow’s eyes snapped to the head captain. “Don’t fucking think about it Shinigami. I will fucking kill every one of you or die trying if you try to take him out of my presence again.”

The room went silent for a few moments until it was Nelilel that spoke up. “It would be in your best interest in surviving this visit from us that you not separate one of our own from us. Itsygo is an Arrancar. You’ve lost him, and there will be no debate on this fact. Our negotiatios with you are moot if you refuse this.”

The silence extended for another few minutes and the head captain nodded. “Place Kurosaki in a secure room with those that wish to remain with him. The others may have a separate room if they like. Kuchiki Rukia, escort them to the fourth division. Allow Unohana to run exams while they are there.”

Rukia nodded and stood up. “Please, follow me,” she said.

Grimmjow leaned over and snatched Ichigo up around the waist and he fought the grip for a moment before he sighed and relaxed. “Kitty…” he muttered. “Wanna walk.”

Grimmjow set Ichigo onto his feet but he grabbed the still bleeding hand and started licking his palm. “Brat,” Grimmjow said as he put that arm around his shoulders while he laved his tongue over the wound.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“You cannot be seriously considering their demands!” Kurotsuchi said as soon as the door had shut.

The head captain was silent. “Of coruse we have to!” Shinji said. “I wasn’t involved in what you did to Ichigo. I wasn’t installed as a captain yet. You decided to hurt him like this. Take responsibility for it.”

“I’ve tried to do so,” Ukitake said with a sigh.

“Your solution is to execute him!” Toshiro, surprisingly, snapped at the other white haired captain.

“You act as though he’s living a life worth living! What you did to him in my absence is unforgivable!” Ukitake snapped back at him.

“What…no, you aren’t seriously thinking that killing him is an option?” Renji said, still standing at Byakuya’s shoulder. “Ya can’t do that. He’s alive. He’s in there. Ya can’t just kill him.”

“From what we just saw, it would be mercy,” Soi Fon said with a sigh.

“No.” The head captain said simply, having everyone turn toward him. “There is no reason to put Kurosaki Ichigo to death. Hirako-taichou is correct. This situation is our responsibility and putting the substitute Shinigami is only an attempt to absolve ourselves.”

Everyone was silent. “What would we request in exchange for returning him to Aizen?” Shunsui asked, looking up to the others. “We are returning him, correct? He’s been transformed by the hogyuku, and admitted to having mastered the item even if it is in Aizen’s possession.”

“He’s insane! How can we trust anything he says?” Kurotsuchi said with a shake of his head. “It was all nonsense, everything he spoke!”

“I understood perfectly,” Byakuya, who had been silent up until this point said. “The Zanpakutō spirits were able to maintain a small aspect of his sanity in the depths of his soul. The forced mating injected foreign spiritual energy into his own, but it was not powerful enough, so it was slowly poisoning him. They hypothesized that introducing appropriate mates to him would eliminate the poison. The process worked. Since that time, he has regained some clarity and intermittent sanity.”

Everyone stared at him as he looked back placidly. “It would behoove us to use this opportunity to gain and advantage in the situation.”

“An advantage?” Ukitake said as he looked at him.

“Yes. The threat from Aizen is significant. We can negotiate a treaty and include stipulations that are to our benefit. We can perhaps also forge an alliance with these Agarthan Arrancar. Doing so would mean we could keep abreast of anything that Aizen does, and would offer us freedom to come and go diplomatically to Hueco Mundo,” Byakuya continued.

There was a long silence until Ukitake spoke up. “Perhaps…there may be other options to ending Ichigo’s life. I still believe that it is a viable option. The quality of life he has…”

“His quality of life is fine,” Zaraki snorted. “He may be crazy, but so are half of us. So he likes to play in blood and gut fuckin’ things that scare him? So what? Seen more blood in my time than I can measure and I enjoyed every minute. If you remember, I was the only one that didn’t believe that bullshit story you all fell for.”

“Zaraki-taichou, I am not sure this is the same thing as your lust for battle…” Ukitake said with a sigh.

“What does it matter? We fucked him up. We messed his head up. Own up to it. We fucked him over good. So who are we to deny him going back to Hueco Mundo to be with the people he wants to be with?” Zaraki said with narrowed eyes.

The silence that followed was the only confirmation that those in room needed.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ichigo was successfully wrapped around Grimmjow as much as possible. He was asleep, and Grimmjow just sat on the floor with his back against one of the walls and didn’t want to let go. He looked up as Nel sat down beside him.

“You’d really fight for him to go home with me?” Grimmjow asked her.

She smiled gently. “Yeah, I would.”

The door opened and Imelda stood there with Maxi. He made an excited screechy noise. “They’re sending us back with the offer. They won’t let us take Ichigo, but they said Grimmjow can stay with him. Kuchiki-taichou will be going to make the negotiations in person with Aizen. Nel, will you be staying with them, or returning?” she asked.

“I’ll return. I know Aizen,” she said as she stood up. “I should be able speak reasonably to him if no one else can talk to him.” She stopped and looked at Grimmjow. “You just worry about him, Grimm. We’ll be back for both of you, otherwise, they’re not getting any of their Shinigami back,” she said with a half smile.

Grimmjow nodded. He didn’t care. He was here with Ichigo, and that was what mattered. Imelda and Nel headed with the Shinigami into Hueco Mundo. Before long, they stood at the gates of Las Noches. Byakuya  and Shunsui had come. Shunsui intended to go to the Agarthan Arrancar’s home when they were done.

“The fuck ya want,” the tall Nnoitra said from the top of the wall. “I don’t see Ichigo with you or Grimmjow.”

“We came to make an offer at negotiations on the matter,” Shunsui called back. “Kuchiki-taichou and I come with the authority of the Sou-taichou to make arrangements that benefit both of our people.”

There was a long wait until a door opened and Nel led them through it and into the “throne” room as they called Aizen’s perched seat.

“Where is he?” Aizen asked as soon as they entered. He was sitting with his hands folded in his lap. His face was inscruitble to any present. Around him stood Jatya, Nnoitra, Szayel, Starrk, and Ulquiorra. None looked pleased at the moment.

“He is safe, Aizen,” Byakuya said with a sigh. “We’re not here to antagonize you. We simply felt it a safety measure to wait until an agreement was reached before he is returned. Grimmjow is with him as we speak under Unohana’s care, not Kurotsuchi’s.”

Aizen glanced at Nel. She nodded. “What he says is true,” Nel commented.

“What are the points of this agreement you propose,” Aizen said with what they now saw was grit teeth.

Byakuya and Shunsui exchanged surprised glances. Both recalled Ichigo saying that the hogyuku answered to him now.

“The agreement is for peaceful relations between Soul Society, the Agarthan Arrancar, and Las Noches. Your crimes against Soul Society warrant interment in the Maggot’s Nest, however, the Sou-Taichou is willing to supplant that with permanent exile to Hueco Mundo. If you leave Hueco Mundo, either to the world of the Living or Soul Society, the agreement is null and void,” Shunsui started.

“Whatever banal desires they have, I will agree to, just return Ichigo,” Aizen said with a huff.

Now Shunsui was surprised. He didn’t wish for any negotiation at all? He was just going to agree to it if he had Ichigo returned?

Shunsui cleared his throat. “Ah, yes, um, also there is a non aggression agreement between the Arrancar and Soul Society, and any Arrancar that are caught violating this will be punished accordingly.”

“And Shinigami,” Nel said, glancing at them.

Shunsui nodded. “Of course.”

“Anything else? I want him back as soon as possible,” Aizen said, starting to get irritated. “I am sure you feel lofty about this. I will agree to it. Not because I want to spare your lives, but because I fear you will hurt him again if I do what I desire.” Aizen stood up and stared at them. “You think I acquiesce easily. You are wrong. I want him back and I will have him back, no matter what. You have put me in a position that you have the thing most precious to me that I will sacrifice everything for. You believe I cannot feel this way, but you are wrong. I would wage war on all of Soul Society and leave none living in my wake if Ichigo told me that was what he wanted.”

Byakuya glanced at Shunsui and back at Aizen. “You know that it would be detrimental to all of your forces. Again.”

“All those would sacrifice if it pleased Ichigo. But it does not. He, in some functional part of his soul, still believes in you all. He still loves you, even. He wants none of you to die. And while I could cut any of you down without a second thought because of what you’ve done…” Aizen sighed. “I won’t because he would become saddened that I did such a thing in his name. When he is lucid, he makes it clear, he wants no death on account of him. So it for that reason that I do not gather more forces than you can imagine and rip a whole through the worlds and destroy every Shinigami in my path.”

“I do not understand why he is so important to you and these Arrancar you brought back with the hogyuku…” Shunsui said with genuine confusion.

“Do not question my devotion to him,” Aizen snapped and glared at the two of them. “Tell Yamamoto that I agree, but I Ichigo isn’t returned to me very soon, I will gather every Arrancar I can recruit and launch an assault on Soul Society the likes of which you cannot imagine.”

Aizen turned his back on them and left the room. The other five Arrancar stared for a moment. Nnoitra spoke up first.

“You have no idea the strength of will it takes for me not to rip your fucking heads from your shoulders at the moment,” he muttered and turned to leave as well.

“I’ll return with you,” Szayel said to Byakuya. “I want to check on him and the kit.”

“You are the scientist?” Shunsui said as he glanced at him.

“Yeah, closest thing to a doctor we have and I’ve been handling Ichigo’s needs since he’s been here,” Szayel said as he crossed his arms.

Starrk yawned. “Yes, ensure his safety, Szayel, I must nap before he returns, Ichigo will wear me out quickly again.” Ulquiorra only stared before he turned and followed Starrk.

Jatya looked between the shinigami. “You have no understanding what your scientist did to us. We may have been adjunca hollows, but to do something so horrible to any creature that is aware…” he said and shook his head in annoyance before he, too, left.

Imelda looked at Shunsui. “Would you like to be shown to Agartha while your fellow returns to Soul Society?”

Shunsui nodded. “Yes, please, madam Imelda. Kuchiki-taichou can return with Aizen’s agreement, and I can enjoy your world.”

“I’ll return with them, Imelda. Maxi can stay in Agartha with you and the babies. I hate to see you separated for too long,” Nel said with a smile at her.

“Thank you, Nel, please, lead us outside and I’ll escort the taichou here to our entrance,” she said with a nod at them.

A few moments later, Shunsui had disappeared into an entrance to Agartha with Imelda and Maxi. Nel had led the way back to Soul society with Byakuya and Szayel. If anyone noticed that they were being watched, they did to mention it to their fellows.

* * *


	10. When They Reach Out

Shunsui wasn’t sure what to expect with a society of Arrancar. He knew that he was going to be seeing something entirely new, and considering that he was Yama-jii’s eyes in this case, he was going to have to pay attention. He walked with the Imelda and Maxi as she took them through a veritable maze of corridors in the underground world that they lived in. He was fascinated by the whole of the place.

“Who do you wish to see first? I know where your men Kira and Hisagi are likely located. They were working with our medical staff,” Imelda asked as they came into a larger open area.

“Yes, that would be fine. If you will show me there, my dear, I would appreciate it,” Shunsui answered with a grin, tipping his hat at her.

When they came to a doorway she stopped, turning to the owlish looking Arrancar. “Please, go tell Dima that I’ve returned and will be there soon.”

“Hoot-hoot,” he answered and took off. Imelda smiled and led him into what Shunsui guessed was the medial ward. He immediately saw that the concern was unwarranted. Kira was indeed there, coaxing a Arrancar that was apparently a patient into eating.

“Now, there, good girl,” he was saying as they approached. “Good, almost gone, look!” he said showing the near empty bowl he was holding to the female Arrancar sitting on the bed. She was watching him intently, and when he scooped the food, some sort of porriage, onto a spoon, she would take a bite.

“Well, if you aren’t impressive,” Imelda said as they approached. He turned and smiled.

“Imelda, and Kyōraku-taichou! I didn’t expect you to come here,” he said with a smile. “I supposed I’ve spent too long away.”

“Kira!” Iris said, getting both Imelda and Kira to stare at her. Imelda gasped.

“Goodness, I’ve yet to hear her speak! I’ve got to tell Kriya! Wait here Shinigami,” she said and took off to the other side.

“This one doesn’t speak?” Shunsui asked.

Kira shook his head. “No, normally she just weeps and cries, sometimes wails,” Kira said scooping more food onto a wooden spoon. “She’s so sweet though, gentle, really. They have no idea what Kurotsuchi-taichou did to her, or the others, really, during his experiments. But she was left this way. She has to be cared for all the time, and only a few people can convince her to eat anything,” he said sadly.

Kriya came up quickly. “She spoke?” she asked, looking at her then Kira.

“She said my name,” Kira answered, scraping out the bowl of the last bits of food. “She ate for me again, too,” he said as he offered her the last bit.

She then smiled, and spoke again. “Kira.” Without warning, she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Kira, burying her face in his neck. “Love Kira.”

Kira patted her back. “Oh, Iris,” he said with a smile. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to go home, but can you eat for Kriya and Imelda now?”

She let go and covered her face, tears immediately sprining to her eyes. She started to sob behind her hands. Kira gasped.

“Iris, no, please, I’ll be back, I promise, I have to go just for a little while. I promise, I’ll come back,” he assured her. He reached out and pulled her hands away from her tearful eyes. “I will come back, but I have to go check in where I live. I promise you, okay?”

She nodded. “Kira,” she said sadly.

“Well, we’re not leaving yet, Kira-fukutaichou. Stay with this lovely lady a while longer. Where is Hisagi?”

“I think he was with Lel, over on the other side,” Kira said as Iris stared at him.

“I’ll show you,” Imelda said as she led him around the other side where Hisagi was sitting with Lel. They were both eating lunch like Irish had been.

When he heard them, Shūhei stood up. “Kyōraku-taichou!”

“Hisagi-fukutaichou, how are you? Have you made a friend of one of these Arrancar?” he asked.

“Yeah, this is Lel. He’s a bit hard to understand at times,” he said with a nod toward him.

Lel turned toward Shūhei. “Did the sun every explode?” he asked. “I hope it exploded, the sun was like a piece of fire.”

Shūhei sighed. “That’s all he ever talks about. The sun, stars, planets. Not sure what the hell Kurotsuchi-taichou did to this one, but he’s definitely got some problems,” he muttered as he sipped his tea.

“Planets, huh?” Shunsui said with a frown. “Maybe he could be thinking about how he looks. He’s always got those weird visages.”

Shūhei nodded. “That could be. Hey, Lel, was the sun the one who did weird things to you?” he asked.

Lel looked at him. “Hot,” he muttered. “Wished the sun would explode.”

Shunsui sighed. “I’d say that is a pretty good indication that yes. Well, where are my other people?” he asked.

“I’d assume the couple is with Dima. The feminine one likes out twins,” Imelda said with a smile as she led them to a large outdoor area. “As I expected, Dima’s already got them running by the water.

Shunsui saw a male Arrancar who was running along the banks of an underground lake. Behind him were two tiny Arrancar that were giggling and trying to keep up with him. He would stop, let them catch up then zip away from them for a few feet and stop again.

“Dima, love!” Imelda called.

Dima looked up, eyes wide and a second later he was wrapped around Imelda. The two tiny Arrancar were running to catch up with him. “Imelda!” he gasped. “I’ve missed you, the twins have been busy growing, see?” he said as they came up.

“Aw, Liron, Lior, my loves,” she said as she kneeled, picking up the two little ones. “Dima, this is one of their taichou, Kyroaku-taichou.”

“Oh, did you get Ichigo taken care of? That poor creature,” he muttered, petting the heads of the little ones.

“You all know of that situation?” Shunsui asked, smiling as Imelda handed him a squirming baby Arrancar.

“All of us did, we could feel it every time one of them claimed him,” Dima snorted. “Hell, that’s what sent half our betas in to heat!” he said with a smirk. “Luckily I was already knocked up, but otherwise…even though I was pregnant, I still felt it.”

“I don’t understand, claiming caused those here to be thrown into this cycle?” Shunsui asked as Lior tried to climb his head.

Imelda nodded. “The release of such massive amounts of energy from those powerful alphas…every one of us were sent to rutting at the very least, and some of the betas went immediately into heat. We should be having quite a crop of babies in another couple months time!” she said with a smirk. “But it only works when the claiming happens.”

“This claiming is greatly significant, isn’t it?” Shunsui asked as the small creature snatched his hat and started chewing the edge.

“You saw Ichigo’s neck, he has six. One for each alpha. They’re bite marks, like this,” she said and turned Dima’s head to the side where a circular mark stood out against his skin. It was faded, but it was obvious that it wasn’t like a normal mark. “At first, of course, it is bloody, a literal bite, but we infuse it with reiatsu, as I told the others, it is a way of announcing, beware, I’ve claimed this beta, and if you touch them, I’ll kill you.”

“It is animal-like,” Shunsui said with a nod, sighing as the little Arrancar tried to jump out of his arms with his hat. He managed to transfer the baby to Dima again. He looked at the soaked edge of his hat and shook it before putting it back on.

“Dima!” came a familiar sounding voice, and Shunsui turned to see Ikkaku and Yumichika walking down the beach toward them. He smirked. Both were barefoot, and Yumichika was wearing some sort of kimono, while Ikkaku was in something that looked like rubber pants and no shirt. “Oh, it’s Kyōraku-taichou,” Yumichika said as they jogged toward them.

“You both seem to have gone rather native,” Shunsui said with a smirk.

“Sorry, ah, I was helping dig mushrooms and Yumichika was helping with herb picking,” Ikkaku said with a smirk. “Ishida is off with the girls again.”

“He did take a liking to Artemisia and Ratri. I think Chad went with them too, Artemisia is an archer. She really thought Ishida was something with his bow showing up like it does. I left Inoue over with Kerest, he was showing her some medicinal herbs that he grows,” Yumichika said with a smirk.

Shunsui smiled as the other baby managed to claw his way up his side to sit on his shoulder. Imelda watched amused as Liron had decided that if his twin got to chew on Shunsui’s hat, he should too. He was now sitting, hands clutching the side, and busily gnawing at the straw.

“Ah, Imelda-san, I think your boys need straw in their diet. Perhaps when I return again, I will bring them some hats of their own,” he said as Imelda extracted Shunsui’s hat from Liron’s teeth. Unfortunately, this time, there was a small chunk torn away. Shunsui twirled his hat and smiled at the spot. “I must say, that is the first time my hat has ever been eaten.”

“Sorry about that, they’re born with teeth,” she said as she passed Liron back to Dima. Both babies wanted to chew on Shunsui’s hat now. “They’re only a few days old, but already a handful! Ichigo’s babe will no doubt be born with a full set of fangs, considering that Grimmjow is a panther Arrancar.”

“Oh, if you want to find Artemisia, I think she and Ratri had gone home for the day. I believe the human males were in tow. But the female is still down with Kerest,” he said as he gazed down the beach.

“My dear Imelda, might you escort me to check on Inoue-san?” Shunsui said with a smirk. “My hat can only take so much chewing.”

“Oi!” Dima said as both babies were trying to climb up Shunsui’s kimono.

“Kyroku-taichou, are we to be heading back?” Ikkaku asked.

Sighing, Shunsui nodded. “Yes, the head captain will not be satisfied until all our people have returned.”

“They did agree to let Ichigo go home, right?” Yumichika asked. “Because they can’t keep him in Soul Society. He needs to be with his mates.”

Shunsui nodded. “They are taking Aizen’s agreement to our terms now. Ichigo should be coming back soon.”

“That’s good. He deserves to be happy, and he’ll be happy with them. They won’t let anything hurt him, and if the head captain tries to keep him away from them, they will tear soul society apart to get him,” Ikkaku said with absolute surety.

“Come, I’ll let you meet our herbalist. Oh, I think Alma’s there too,” Imelda said as she walked them down the beach where a pudgy, short Arrancar stood beside Orihime. He had pitch black hair with white spikes sticking out all over it. His face was very round and he looked vaguely rodent like with his long nose and small eyes. The taller, rubber clad female Arrancar was leaning over the table he was working on watching.  

“So, this one is poison in large doses,” he was saying as they approached. “Remember, the dose makes the poison. This amount can cure someone of…” he paused and realized people had approached.

Imelda smiled and nodded. “Alma, Kerest, and Inoue, how are you three?” she asked.

“Oh, good, I was just listening to Kerest go on about his herbs. He’s got as many herbs as I have mushrooms,” Alma said with a smirk. “But I gotta go back to work. Time to dig for the good ones,” she said and waved as she left.

“Kyroku-taichou!” Orihime said with a grin. “Does this mean that Ichigo has gone back to the Arrancar in Las Noches?”

“Not just yet, but soon,” Shunsui said. Her hands were covered in green stains from the herbs she was working on. “I’m going to be taking the other Shinigami back, to prove to the Sou-Taichou that they were here by choice. Are you coming back, or do you prefer to remain here?”

She frowned. “Oh, Kuchiki-kun and Abarai-kun already left. I’ll have to see what Sado-kun and Ishida-kun wish to do. Are you going to talk to them now?” she asked.

“I am, would you like to come with us?” he asked.

“I should.” She turned to Kerest. “Thank you so much, some of these grow in the World of the Living. When I come back, I’ll bring you some things you don’t have. Like parsley and mustard!”

Kerest smiled. “Thank you, princess,” he said and blushed as he turned back to his herbs.

“Come this way, taichou,” Imelda said as she led them toward a corridor. They walked for a bit then came to a curtained doorway.

“You home?” Imelda called.

A second later the curtain was pulled back and a pair of bright eyes looked up from a mess of dark hair. “Whatchu want, ‘Melda, the princess, and hatman?”

“Niobe! Don’t be rude when answering visitors!” came a female voice from inside.

“Sawwy!” the girl called. “Come in!” she said. She looked to be around five and she ran back in the room. “It’s ‘Melda, the princess, and a Hatman with a pink coat!”

Shunsui snickered as he pulled his hat off and followed Imelda into the room. It opened into a large living space and he saw that there was a female Arrancar sitting on a pile of pillows knitting. She had a mask fragment that looked like horns that sloped down over her breasts, covering them from above. Her hair was long and an almost iridescent bluish black in color. She looked up and smiled.

“A hatman with a pink coat?” she said with a sigh as the little girl crawled up beside her.

“Yah!” she exclaimed and pointed to Shunsui.

Imelda smirked. “Ratri, this is Kyōraku-taichou, from the Shinigami. He came to check in with the humans, and you know Inoue already,” she said as she gestured to Orihime who stood behind them. Orihime came forward.

“Hey, Niobe, want to go play while they talk?” she asked.

“Yay, I’ll play with the princess! Come to my room,” Niobe said and grabbed Orihime’s hand and drug her toward a ladder which she led her up.

“The princess?” Shunsui asked.

“Yeah, Kerest started that, calling her the princess. I think he’s got a crush on her,” Imelda said with a smirk. “How’s the blanket coming?” Imelda turned to Ratri.

“Almost done!” she said.

“Is someone visiting?” came a soft, drawling voice from the back.

Shunsui looked up to see another female Arrancar, this one with a mask that was plate of bone that went from her hairline down over her left eye. Around that, her hair was long and puffed light brown, almost like a lion’s mane around her face. She wore a set of loose pants and a tight shirt. Her body was lean and wiry looking. Walking out with her were both Uryū and Chad.

“Oh, Imelda, you’ve brought someone else with you?” she said with a soft smile as she came in and sat down beside Ratri.

“Yes, this is Kyrouku-taichou. He’s come to take his people back as a way to assure them they are well,” Imelda said with a smile at her.

“Ah, well, will you two be going, then?” she asked as she looked toward Uryū and Chad.

“I suppose we should go back to the World of the Living,” Uryū said with a sigh. He looked at Chad who nodded.

“Before you all go back, let me offer a thank you meal before you go. A few hours shoulnd’t harm?” Imelda asked.

Shunsui nodded. “I do believe that would be a wonderful idea. I even have an unopened jug of sake with me.”

“Sake?” Imelda asked with a frown.

“Oh, my dear, it is the nectar of the gods,” Shunsui said as he walked out of the room with her. Uryū and Chad followed after summoning Orihime from Niobe’s room.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Byakuya was still somewhat surprised by the ease at which speaking with Aizen had gone. Either Aizen was playing a very intricate game, or he very genuinely loved Ichigo. The fact that Ichigo seemed to have attained control over the hogyuku even though it was still in Aizen’s possession was incredible. The others might have their doubts, but Byakuya knew what he’d seen and he was of the opinion that Ichigo had control over the hogyuku and that was why the Arrancar were slowly changing around him. Ichigo had to be the source. First he would take these two Arrancar to where Ichigo and Grimmjow were held.

He knocked and then opened the door. He was still getting used to seeing the extremely violent Arrancar so very docile. Grimmjow was sitting against the wall with Ichigo curled into his lap fast asleep. Grimmjow sat, cradling his head and looking very content. He was about to say something but the pink haired Arrancar hurried past him. Grimmjow nodded to him.

“Oi, Ichigo,” Grimmjow said. “Szayel’s here.”

Ichigo’s eyes fluttered open and he looked up. His eyes went wide and he squealed loudly, leaping into the thinner Arrancar’s arms. “Inky,” he muttered as he buried his face in Szayel’s neck. “Missed you. Wanna go home.”

“I know, I know, and we will. Aizen-sama agreed to what they wanted so they are supposed to send you back,” Szayel slowly disengaged him. “But I gotta check you over. You and the kit.”

Byakuya spoke up. “With his mental state, how do you anticipate he will be able to care for young?”

Both Grimmjow and Szayel glared at him. “That’s what we’re for,” Grimmjow said. “But there’s a chance his head will be clear when it comes to the kit. I’ve seen the most violent bastard hollows turn into the most doting dams when they birth a kit.”

“How will it be born?” Byakuya asked with a frown. “He does not have a birth canal like females would.”

“He will when the time comes,” Szayel explained as he pushed Ichigo to lay on his back. Grimmjow moved and put his hands on his shoulders. “The reiatsu chamber will alter his physiology to create one. Female Arrancar do the same thing, the birth canal doesn’t appear until right before actual birth. Which won’t happen for another few months, unless…well, Grimmjow is a cat. Could be sooner rather than later.”

Byakuya nodded. “I must report to the head captain. Please remain here.”

After he’d gone Szayel sensed the kit and ran his hands over Ichigo’s belly. “Chamber is fully formed, no anomalies, the soul implanted successfully. Seems to be growing at a steady pace, so no harm from being kidnapped by these idiots.” Szayel sat back up and Ichigo smiled at him.

“So I’m good, right?” he asked. “I will make Grimm-kitty happy with a baby kitty.”

“Yes, yes you will,” Grimmjow told him and kissed his forehead. “Very happy.”

Ichigo smiled up at him. “Her name is Yasu. She will have tiny kitten ears, and her tail is orange.”

Grimmjow glanced at Szayel and then back to Ichigo. “How do you know that?”

“Shiro said she came to visit. She had teeth, too. He said she bit his calf because he teased her,” Ichigo smirked and then reached up to hug Grimmjow. “Bloody…” he muttered in Grimmjow’s ear, and he knew that he’d lost his bit of clarity already.

Szayel shook his head. “I’ve got no idea on that. I suppose it is possible for the Zanpakutō spirit to see the kit, but I’ve never heard of anything like that. “

Grimmjow shook his head. “Yasu, an assertive child,” he mumbled. “Well, guess there’s no choice, that’s the kit’s name.”

Szayel sighed, looking over to see Nel was still watching with an amused smirk.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Shunsui stepped through to Soul Society after taking Uryū, Orihime, and Chad back to the World of the Living. He had enjoyed his visit with the unusual Arrancar, though. Even if they had all be shocked at what sake was. He’d have to take more back to them. He paused as he passed the fourth division though, wondering how Ichigo was doing. He would see how he was before he made his report, he decided. He found his way to the room he was staying in. He knocked lightly before he opened the door.

Inside, he found Ichigo was lying on his stomach, drawing in red pencil on a pad of paper. Beside him, the pink haired scientist was watching him, stroking his head now and then. Grimmjow was lying on the futon, asleep, and the green haired Nel was also sleeping on the other futon. He walked over toward them.

“What does he draw?” Shunsui asked as quietly as he could.

Szayel looked up at him. “He says he is drawing Yasu, the baby.”

On the pad, he was indeed drawing a small baby. It had a long tail, and it was a chubby little creature. It had a head full of hair, and there were a pair of ears sitting on top. It didn’t have human ears, just the cat ears. It also was wearing a little dress.

“Yasu?” Shunsui asked. “And a girl. Is it his image of what he thinks it will look like, or does he know?”

“He seems to know somehow. He said Shiro told him she’d been playing in their inner world already. He said she is really loud and talks a lot.”

“Interesting. How are you Ichigo?” he said a little louder.

Ichigo turned his brown eyes on Shunsui. “She’s gonna chase the butterflies away, but she is alone, but not for long. There will be more babies for my mates,” he said and went back to drawing.

“Hmm,” Shunsui murmured and then left them.

He had been thinking a lot of the situation. In the end, everything had been their fault. His grief had completely clouded his ability to see clearly. He had seen his best friend and sometimes lover die, and he hadn’t been able to handle it. He wanted to kill the person to kill Jūshirō with his own hands, and would have done so once the order to execute him had come down. There would have been no doubt in his mind. And now, to think that killing Ichigo would have been such a kindness.

As he walked toward the first office, he wondered. Even though he was still partially insane, and now an Arrancar fully, how could they just murder him? That would be what it was, murder. Ichigo was not at fault for what had happened in the least, and it had been them that drove him to insanity. No, it was not to be that way.

He knocked on the office door, and received the command to enter. He looked in surprise to see Urahara and Isshin Kurosaki already there.

“Kyrouku-taichou,” the head captain said. “You come to report on Agartha.” 

“I do. I spent the day with them, and as they said, our people were all safe. I’ve returned the humans to the world of the living, and all our people have returned. All, however, expressed a desire to return and spend more time with these Arrancar.”

“Where did the Arrancar in this place originate?” the head captain said from behind his desk.

“Some are naturally evolving Arrancar, but the majority were from Las Noches. Some were priverion, and others were simply Arrancar that escaped Aizen’s rule. Some of them escaped Kurotsuchi-taichou’s experiements,” he said and glanced seriously at Urahara. “They are irrevocably damaged. I spoke to three who were severely affected. One was unable to speak or even eat most the time, another spoke in strange references to planets and stars, and another often fell into fits of self-hatred. There were others, but they had been able to recover and become productive.”

“Your opinion on Ichigo Kurosaki?” he asked.

Shunsui looked at Isshin and Urahara. “I believe he should be returned to Aizen and the Arrancar of Las Noches.”

“How can you say that?” Isshin exclaimed. “He can’t be left with Aizen! Aizen did this to him!”

“The Aizen that I met is not the one that left Soul Society,” Shunsui stated, looking at him seriously. “Ichigo has changed him greatly, as he has changed the Arrancar. They no longer answer to Aizen, they answer to Ichigo. Not returning him will lead to all out war. Even the Agarthan, who have no real stake in conflict between Soul Society and Las Noches would fight for Ichigo. They consider him one of theirs now, and they will do everything they can to return him. This bond between the Arrancar, this claiming and mating, is much deeper than anything humans and Shinigami can experience. I saw many couples and groupings while there, and it is very common to die for their mates if necessary,” Shunsui sighed.

“And this child?” the head captain asked.

“This child is his child. It should be born and he should be allowed to hold her.”

“Her?” Isshin asked.

“Ichigo has named the baby Yasu, and says that it is a girl. He’s currently drawing pictures of her with Szayel in his room at the fourth,” Shunsui explained.

“He can’t have a child! That…but…” Isshin stammered, but Urahara put a hand on his shoulder.

“Isshin, you have to let this happen. After what Ichigo has been through, would it be fair to simply take everything away from him again?” Urahara squeezed his shoulder. “His whole world was ripped away, and he made a new one in the last six months. He has a new family and a new life. Do we want to simply rip that away and make him suffer again?”

“He’s my son,” Isshin whispered.

Shunsui didn’t want to say it, but he couldn’t help the words. “Shiba-san. If he was this important to you, why would have turned your back on him ten years ago?”

Isshin stared at Shunsui, shocked that he would say something like that. The words were true though, and Shunsui sighed and turned to the head captain again. “I’ll prepare them to return, Sou-taichou, if you have agreed to send him back.”

“Do so.”

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“Time to go home, Ichi,” Grimmjow said as the door opened, revealing Byakuya and Shunsui who would be escorting them back to Las Noches.

Ichigo squealed and hugged Grimmjow before kissing him on the cheek. “Home, with mates, and Master,” he said with a smile.

“Home with us all,” Szayel said and hugged him.

They walked out into the sun and Shunsui handed Ichigo his swords, and Byakuya handed Nel and Grimmjow their weapons. Szayel hadn’t brought anything with him. They walked them toward the senkaimon but both Urahara and Isshin stood there. Ichigo froze as soon as he saw them.

“I don’t wanna go back with them,” he said with a petrified look on his face.

Grimmjow squeezed his shoulders. “They aren’t taking you anywhere, they are here to tell you good-bye.”

Ichigo nodded, eyes already full of tears. “I don’t want to go with them, not anymore.” His voice trembled but Grimmjow got him moving forward again.

When they stood in front of them, Isshin stepped forward.

“I’m sorry, son. For everything that’s happened,” he whispered. “I should have listened, I should have believed you. I’m sorry, so sorry. Please, will you come with me instead of going with them? You can stay with Urahara, and your sisters can visit you and maybe he can build you a Gigai…” Tears were slipping from Isshin’s eyes now. Ichigo shook his head, muttering under his breath as he nuzzeled into Grimmjow’s shoulder.

“No, no, not there, not ever. Never going there, never again. I’m going home!” he said as he finally seemed to snap.

“Why, son?” Isshin begged and Ichigo’s eyes locked onto his.

A second, and his eyes bled black and gold again, like they had in the meeting. “Why?” he whispered, letting go of Grimmjow as his sanity set in again. “Why? You threw me to the dogs and burned my body, and you ask me why I won’t go back with you? You let them drive me insane without question of what they would do to me? You would let them murder me when I did nothing wrong? You would, without question, agree? No, you had your chance to do what was right, and you…you…” he stammered, the black starting to fade from his eyes slowly. “You lost your chance to say anything about my life when you told me I was dead.”

Ichigo blinked and his eyes shifted back to their normal brown. He gasped, grabbing Grimmjow’s hand tightly. “Wanna go, now,” he muttered and looked up at him.

“Let’s go, Ichi-baby, the others are waiting,” Grimmjow whispered as they left Isshin and Urahara behind and stepped through.

On the other side, the two captains watched as Grimmjow led them into Las Noches, then they themselves returned to Soul Society. Isshin and Urahara stood there still. Byakuya looked at them and then shook his head.

“Don’t try and convince yourself his words are from his insanity. Those words were truth,” Byakuya commented, then turned and left.

Shunsui turned and opened the senkaimon and let them leave. It was painful to accept that you’ve done something terrible, but Isshin Shiba would have to deal with that fact. He had done something unforgivable, and something a father should never do. He abandoned his son without question. No, they had all committed an unforgivable crime. For that reason, Shunsui had to make sure that Ichigo was allowed to live his life as well as he could. He understood the thinking that he was “better off dead” than in the condition he now lived. That wasn’t true. A life like Ichigo had now, one where he had people that loved him, and whom he loved, that was not a bad life. No, the only reason to destroy Ichigo’s life was to try and make their horrible deed disappear. Shunsui would not allow that to happen, no matter if he had to stand up to the head captain. He’d done it before, and he would do so again if he had to.

 

* * *


	11. When the Wheels Continue to Turn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little shorter than normal, but prepare yourselves for a couple of chapters of nonstop cute fluff as we welcome Ichigo's babies into the world... :)
> 
> Check out some of my homes online: 
> 
> • facebook.com/phoenixreal  
> • wordpress.com/phoenixreal  
> • beverlylynnanderson.ashesofreality.com

 

“You’ve lost him, we all have,” Kisuke said as he sat across the table from Isshin.

In a way, the trip to Soul Society had been to confirm this very thing to Kisuke. He knew, from the very beginning when he was told what had occurred, that things would turn out badly. Isshin had turned his back on his child, and that alone was enough to raise Kisuke’s ire at the other Shinigami. The fact that any of this had taken place, though, had not surprised the once captain. No, he had not been surprised at all. He understood, of course, why he had not been informed of any of the things that had occurred. Why would he have been told? He would have gone to Soul Society and demanded the old man listen to reason. He would have fought for Ichigo, as he had fought for the others. He sighed, hearing movement further inside the shoten. Shinji would no doubt be listening. He should be listening. Kisuke tapped his chin and wondered if they even realized that the Vizard captain had slipped out of Soul Society again. No, likely they had not, but he imagined that Hiyori, once she found out he was in the World of the Living again would give him what for. He smirked, turning his attention back to the distraught man across from him. His sympathy for Isshin Kurosaki, though, was gone.

“I know that now. Those eyes that looked at me were my son’s, at least, when he said I had no place in his life any longer,” Isshin said with a sigh. There wasn’t much more to be said.

Kisuke hurt for him, he really did. But he couldn’t tell him it wasn’t his fault, because it was. One good word from Isshin, and things would have turned out so much differently than they had. “Why, Isshin? Why would you have turned on your own son?”

Isshin lifted his head from where it was cradled in his hands and looked at Kisuke. “I can’t tell you for sure. I thought I had left the mindset of the way Soul Society thought behind me when I stepped out and my powers were sealed to me. I thought that I could never see things their way again. But when… When Shunsui came to me and told me what had happened, I believed him, Kisuke. I believed him. I saw the heartache in that man’s eyes, losing the one person he loved more than anyone in the world, and my heart broke with remembered pain. I _knew_ what it was like to lose the one you love, and I… Kisuke, I wanted to punish him for taking someone else’s love away from him.” Isshin’s eyes filled with tears again. “And all I did was do exactly the same thing to my son that everyone else did to him. I got so caught up in Shunsui’s pain, in Shunsui’s loss, my own loss of Masaki, that I hated my own child. Because Kisuke, he drew the Grand Fisher to them that night, and you know it. And maybe there was a piece of me that blamed him for Masaki’s death.”

The truth behind Isshin’s words was harsh, but Kisuke had always had a suspicion that there was a deep part of Isshin that blamed Ichigo for Masaki’s death, and this confirmed it. Ichigo, a child of nine years old, possessed of unimaginable power and already brimming with limitless _reiatsu_ , had pulled that hollow toward them. They had never stood a chance against something like the Grand Fisher that night.

Kisuke looked up as the door opened and he saw Uryū and Orihime had come. Then he noticed Chad was there as well, silent as always behind them. “Come in, sit down,” he said, and gestured around the tea table. Before he could say anything, Tessai brought tea to everyone. Kisuke hadn’t even realized that Tessai knew they had guests. The three humans looked chastised and deservedly so. None of them had wanted to see Ichigo even given the chance. Every one of them had refused the offer to stand beside the _senkaimon_ and wait him to be sent back to his new home in Hueco Mundo beside his lovers.

“You didn’t see Ichigo before he returned,” Isshin said flatly as he wiped his eyes. There was no accusation in his tone, but Kisuke knew that he regretted that they had not been there as well.

“I couldn’t,” Uryū said as he slipped to sit on the ground. “I know I should have, but just from what the Agarthan Arrancar said he was like… Was it as bad as you thought?”

“He told him off,” Kisuke said with a smirk. “So, he was quite obviously there and knew what was going on, if he even had to pull on the power of his inner hollow to clear his mind up enough to speak it. He’s not happy, as you can imagine.”

“He has every right to feel like that,” Isshin said with a deep sigh again. He just couldn’t stop sighing.

Orihime was crying again already. “I want to go back. I want to help those Arrancar all I can,” she whispered. “I don’t deserve to stay here. I don’t deserve to be here, in this comfortable human life, while those Arrancar carve their life out in that underground world. No, I don’t deserve to be comfortable and safe. I need to go back.”

“What do you mean?”  Uryū asked, frowning at her.

“No, I need to make up for my part. So, I should help them. If I help them, then I’m doing something for Ichigo’s new people. And they could use it.”

Everyone was quiet for a long few minutes. “I can take you back; first, why don’t you go visit your human friends and tell them you’ll be away for a while?”

She nodded, standing and leaving tearfully again. Kisuke watched her go with a sad heart. He turned to the others. “Mayuri isn’t done, and I don’t think everyone in Soul Society is in agreement of letting Ichigo go so easily.”

“What do you mean?” Isshin asked with a glance at Uryū and Chad.

“I mean, he’s let go of an experimental subject far too easily. He’s not done. I’m also worried that some of the other captains won’t give up so easily. Suì-Fēng was far too quiet as the head of the punishment squad. I would not be surprised if she didn’t try to have Ichigo killed secretly.”

“She wouldn’t.” Yoruichi said from behind him, completely naked. Everyone averted their eyes. She had obviously been listening in her cat form when she heard what Kisuke had said. Without looking, Kisuke slipped off his haori and tossed it behind him.

“She would, and you know it,” Kisuke said as she flopped down beside him, his haori covering her for the most part. “You know she’s gotten bitter without you there to temper her. I wouldn’t be surprised if she hasn’t already left to go to Hueco Mundo in an attempt to assassinate him as it is.”

Yoruichi growled. “Fine, send me with Orihime. I’ll make sure she doesn’t interfere. He has a baby to take care of soon.”

“And the others?” Isshin asked, wondering now who would stand with his son and who would not.

“I don’t think Kyōraku and Kuchiki will be a problem. Zaraki and Hitsugaya made themselves clear on how they feel. Suì-Fēng I worry will attempt to cull him secretly. Kurotsuchi we know will try and re-acquire him as an experimental subject. Unohana, well, she will stand with saving lives. This might be in our favor or against it. Shinji, Rose, and Kensei…I don’t see them turning on Ichigo no matter what. He trained with them as one of their own.” Kisuke thought for a long time. “I don’t know for sure on any of them, though. There is no telling the status for anyone at a given time.”

Isshin stood slowly. “Keep me appraised. I’ll work from the shadows if I must from now on. I’ve turned on my son, and there is no salvation to be had for me. So, it shall be that I will be his father, and I will do my duty as his father one way or another.”

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ichigo’s first reaction when he got into the Las Noches was absolute glee. Sōsuke was waiting by the door when he returned, and he bolted right for him the second he saw his Master.

“Ichigo,” Sōsuke breathed as Ichigo leaped and wrapped himself around Sōsuke’s body. “I’ve been so worried, I can’t tell you how worried I’ve been,” he said, and he meant it with his whole heart. For a second, Sōsuke couldn’t believe what he was saying, then he couldn’t believe what he was feeling. He saw that Grimmjow and Szayel were both standing back and watching. “Ichigo, come, we’re going to our room because you need rest, in your own bed.”

“Master, love,” Ichigo breathed into his neck and sighed deeply. “Missed you.”

Sōsuke dumped Ichigo right into the middle of the big bed where he flopped with a happy expression on his face. “I was scared I wouldn’t come home to you,” Ichigo said with surprising clarity.

“So was I,” Sōsuke said as he climbed into the bed. He laid a hand across Ichigo’s belly. In the time he had been gone, the bump had grown. “Interesting. The baby appears to be growing faster than expected.

Sōsuke was about to summon Szayel when he cringed in pain, his hands going to where the hogyuku was embedded into his body. There was some kind of pulse.

“That thing really does grant wishes,” Ichigo whispered and when Sōsuke looked up, he saw the black and gold eyes. Before, those eyes would have meant insanity in Ichigo. Now, they meant clarity. The reversal of his eyes was perhaps the strangest thing that he would have to get used to.

“What do you mean?” he asked, opening the kusodo he wore to show the orb was glowing blue in his chest.

“The hogyuku is mine,” Ichigo whispered, moving to stand on his hands and knees and touching the small object gently. At his touch, a pulse issued from it and he smiled. “Mine, because I am the master now. It knows my mind, and what it is doing is accelerating the birth for me. All the little ones will come quickly. My body could not tolerate more than one at a time, or twins of the same father. But it can quicken the time it takes to birth them. I have much work to do yet. Starrk doesn’t yet come close, out of fear. And Nnoitra despairs yet that I will never accept him. Ulquiorra’s emptiness is still consuming him, and he has yet to understand. I’ve granted the gift of creation to Grimmjow, and his healing shall come when the baby Yazu is born to him. No more will he suffer hollowness.” Ichigo paused, his eyes starting to bleed back to normal. “Szayel’s legacy will not be madness, and the chaos of the second shall not be passed on.”

As soon as Ichigo’s eyes were normal again, he fell back into the pillows, completely asleep and exhausted.

“I wonder,” Sōsuke said as he stood and headed out toward Szayel’s lab. If he had mastery over the hogyuku, then what did that mean for all of them?

Szayel was busy with something when he walked into the room and cleared his throat. Szayel didn’t stop to do anything but answered.

“Can I do something? I’m going over readings from Ichigo’s return, and I’m not sure I actually understand some of them…” he muttered.

“Maybe something Ichigo said might help?” Sōsuke said with a sigh. Sometimes, Szayel didn’t listen very well.

Szayel stopped, turning to him and stared. Sōsuke had held open his kusodo and was showing him quite clearly, he was talking about the hogyuku.

“The hogyuku…” Szayel muttered. “What did he say about it?”

“He said that he was the master of the hogyuku.”

“Oh, that makes more sense,” Szayel said with a sigh, putting down the test tubes he was holding. “Now, if he has mastery over the hogyuku, though, why does it still answer to you as well? You’re still able to create Arrancar.”

Sōsuke nodded. “Perhaps it does my bidding because Ichigo wills it to answer to me. The hogyuku will answer to the strongest power source around it. Ichigo fits that position, especially now that he has been made into an Arrancar. An Arrancar without a hollow hole, of course.”

“Which makes him something even more than the rest of us,” Szayel murmured, turning back to his papers where he’d written down several things. “Yes, that would make sense. Arrancar are the bridge between hollow and Shinigami, but what happens when that bridge is broken and re-forged? You get something unknown, like Ichigo. He’s not a Shinigami any more, but he’s also not quite an Arrancar.”

“What exactly is it that had you bothered?” Sōsuke asked, closing his kusodo around him once again.

“Oh, the baby. It appears to be accelerating in development once Ichigo got back here…” he stopped. “Because now he’s near the hogyuku again instead of Soul Society. It all makes sense. That’s one of the reasons he can’t be separated from you. He has mastery over the hogyuku…”

Sōsuke nodded to himself more than anything. “I never would have imagined. It is the hogyuku that has been slowly changing us all to match Ichigo’s desires. Even in his madness, he is still the same person. He wants to solve all the pain that we have. He removes your madness, he takes away Ulquiorra’s emptiness, he quells the destruction in Grimmjow. He’s removing the aspects of death that each of the Espada were left with. By doing that, he’s healing them all…”

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“Now he’s worried,” Ichigo growled as he sat in the dome shaped area of his inner world. Not much had changed, though it seemed that Shiro and Zangetsu had gotten used to the small confines they now lived in.

“He needed to know,” Shiro said and snuggled his nose into Ichigo’s neck. He’d put himself right in Ichigo’s lap as soon as he appeared in their inner world. Ichigo didn’t argue it anymore, and he understood now that Shiro required tactile sensation now and then.

“They’re going to send the captain of the second,” Zangetsu noted from where he stood by the edge, watching the falling rain of black inside the water. Still, the madness remained, and none of them knew how to rid Ichigo of it.

“Can we trust the others, the ones that turned on you, to stop this?” Shiro asked, frowning as he nuzzled into Ichigo’s throat.

Ichigo nodded. “I trust them. I know you don’t think I should, after they turned their back on me, but I trust them to do what is right, especially now that they know better.”

“You almost told Sōsuke all, y’know,” Shiro grumbled. “I thought we were surprising him with the rapidity of the babies.”

Ichigo smirked and glanced out into the water. A figure ran between the dripping madness. He smiled as she dodged and weaved, never letting anything touch her. It wouldn’t matter, she was formed of madness, and thus would forever be immune to it. Like all of Ichigo’s kits, Yazu would stand tall and never suffer like he had.

“Child!” he called and the small figure darted through the bubble and stood before him. He smiled at her and she grinned, her mouth filled with rows of sharp, cat-like teeth. Brilliant blue cat slit eyes stared back at him, and there were broad streaks of green under her eyes just like her father. On the outside of her eyes, two small bone fragments streaked with red lines covered her temples and disappeared into her hair. Her face was identical to Ichigo’s and in a way, Ichigo thought she looked a little bit like Yuzu. Ironic considering her name was Yazu.

“Dam!” she said and jumped into Shiro’s lap where he sat on Ichigo’s.

“How’s my Yazu?” Ichigo asked and ruffled the small child’s head full of thick orange and blue streaked hair. A pair of cat ears sat high on her head, striped as well. The tail, matching her ears and hair, whipped around her back.

“When are the others gonna be borned? I need to play with someone!” she demanded.

“You have to be born first, silly girl!” Ichigo sighed.

“Well, hurry up!” she snapped and leaped off Shiro’s lap and ran back into the madness tainted water.  

“She’s gonna be a handful,” Shiro muttered. “All day, she gonna bug me, when am I gonna meet my papa, when am I gonna get brothers and sisters, when am I this and that.”

Ichigo smirked. “Sooner than anyone thinks, thanks to my unconscious influence on the hogyuku, it seems…” Ichigo commented, laying hands on his burgeoning belly.

Shiro sighed, standing up and walking toward the edge so he could see the child playing. “Who will be next?”

“Starrk.”

“His connection is tenuous. Grimmjow is the only alpha with which you are completely secure with,” Shiro noted. “You will have to work to break through the barriers that each of them have set up. Nnoitra’s heart is flooded with despair and pain. Ulquiorra’s emptiness is still a problem. He must begin to heal some before we can grant him relief. The second… Well, I’m not sure how things will work out with that one. He’s a rakshasa Arrancar, and that means something different than your average animals. Szayel, aside from Grimmjow, has forged the deepest connection with you.” Shiro paused. “I think that the one at most danger has to be Starrk. His connection to you is very thin, and if ya don’t shore it up, he’s going to fall out of our grasp.”  

“I know. I told Sōsuke that. Each one presents a unique challenge. But by the time I’m done, they will be healed of their aspects of death and more,” Ichigo sighed and ran a hand over his head. “But I worry on Sōsuke. Will he remain patient as I deal with the Espada?”

Shiro smirked. “Sōsuke is smitten, King. He ain’t going to do anything to piss you off. No, he’s going to be a good boy and wait, and then we’ll surprise him most of all.”

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Suì-Fēng didn’t expect to have someone literally drag her from her hiding place in Hueco Mundo. She most certainly didn’t expect to be face-to-face with Yoruichi Shihōin.

“Ah, see, I knew you’d try it,” Yoruichi said with a smirk as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“Yoruichi-sama!” Suì-Fēng exclaimed, staring in shock at her.

“I can’t let you kill him,” Yoruichi told her with a shake of her head. “He’s happy, and he’s home.”

“How can you say that? After what he’s become? He’s a brood mare for them!” she snapped. “How can you let him stay there, bearing their children like some sort of…of… prize sow!” She snorted. “This mission was not one I had to be ordered to do. I would have done so anyway.”

Yoruichi looked at her for a long time before she spoke. “I think you mean to do what is best for him, so I get that. But the life he’s living is still a life. So, he’s loved by them and he’ll bear their children. So? Is there a worse life for someone who spent ten years being tormented and tortured by his friends?” Yoruichi asked with a sigh. She stepped forward and cupped Suì-Fēng’s face suddenly, making the other woman flinch backward. “Love is worth making sacrifices for. You ever thought about that?”

Suì-Fēng shook her head in Yoruichi’s grip. “I don’t understand, Yoruichi-sama.”

“No? I would think as long as you’ve chased after me, you’d understand that I’m about to kiss you, you dumb woman,” Yoruichi whispered and leaned forward to gently brush Suì-Fēng’s lips with her own.

“Why now?” Suì-Fēng yelped and stepped back suddenly. “You…you’ve had plenty time, and now you come here, when I’m on a mission to do this? Why? Just to stop me? Is this some game? Because, Yoruichi-sama, don’t play with my heart this way.” Her eyes were already welling with tears.

Yoruichi nodded. “I suppose that seeing Ichigo, and seeing him with his lovers has influenced me. I’ve been here watching for a week now, that’s how I knew when you arrived. I’ve observed him, and his truth. And while his truth isn’t the thing you would imagine it to be it is. And it made me realize that I’ve wasted a lot of time.”

Suì-Fēng stared at the other woman, the woman she loved with every part of her soul, the woman she promised years upon years to give up her entire soul for, who was standing there confessing to her. “No, there’s no way that this is just some random idea that got in your head. You are tricking me, and the minute I leave this mission undone, you will leave me, abandon me in Soul Society while you run back to your precious Urahara!”

Yoruichi stared for a second then started to laugh out loud. “You-you’re jealous of Kisuke!” she gasped as she tried to get her mirth under control. “You think that… that Kisuke and me, oh dear souls, no, that has never happened nor will it ever happen!” she heaved a breath and controlled her laughter finally. “Kisuke is my best friend but I’ll never be the one he loves.”

“Who…who does he love, then?” Suì-Fēng had relaxed her stance without realizing it while Yoruichi was laughing so hard. Perhaps it was Yoruichi allowing herself to be in an unguarded state that did it, but she was beginning to doubt her suspicions.

Yoruichi wiped tears from her eyes. “Sh-Shinji, idiot. Him and Shinji have been lovers since they were captains the first time,” she said as she stood up, rubbing her stomach. “Oh, wow, that was a good one. I mean, shit, now you know about them being lovers.” She looked slightly remorseful but shrugged. “Oh well, now that Shinji is back in Soul Society as a captain, they don’t see each other as much, but yeah. Why do you think those two always disappeared alone? And why Kisuke did everything in his power to save him?” She paused. “Good kami, how many times I’ve walked in on Kisuke bent over his desk being…”

“Oh, oh my,” Suì-Fēng said with wide eyes. “I didn’t, I mean, he’s the…”

“Oh yes, my dear Kisuke likes to be fucked,” Yoruichi said with smirk. “Watched once or twice at Shinji’s request, just to get Kisuke going. Hmm, but look how red the idea makes you. Could you be curious about watching those two go at it?”

Suì-Fēng turned away but soon felt the warm embrace from behind as Yoruichi’s arms wrapped around her, cradling her chest. “I am not here because I want to save Ichigo’s life, though, he was my student and I do want to save him. I am here to stop you from turning even further away from the correct path. Please, think about it. And if the excuse that I have always loved you makes you see the truth, then that is why I am here. I am here to help you see, and I’m sorry it has taken me so long to say something.”

“How long?” she whispered.

“As long as I can remember, you were always there, Suì-Fēng, and I love your devotion and your passion. And you have taken on the duties of the second beautifully with grace and more ability than anyone else. So please, accept my words for what they are, as my confession to you.”

Yoruichi stepped back from Suì-Fēng’s back and grasped the other woman by the waist and pulled their bodies together again from the front. She leaned in close to Suì-Fēng’s face, breath panting a slight bit now. “You have no idea how long I have waited, wondering if I should take this mood, kitten. But I think that this, this whole situation, has shown me that the time to wait is done. I’ll make you scream before this day’s over, and you’ll never doubt my devotion again.”

Suì-Fēng’s face flushed bright red, and she melted into the body of her Yoruichi-sama as the other woman’s lips met hers for the first time in full. The certainly didn’t stop there, not until Yoruichi’s promise was kept. Afterward, they both swore never to become passionate in the middle of the sands of Heuco Mundo. That sand got in way too many uncomfortable places for their liking.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Only two months passed before the day that Yazu would arrive came.

The morning began with Ichigo yelling at Sōsuke and then crumpling in a dead faint. Everyone was sent into a flurry of activity in anticipation for something so unprecedented. Considering they were unsure how Ichigo’s body would handle the actual birthing process, Szayel had prepared a surgery room for him in case it was necessary. Imelda had arrived from Agartha with Orihime at her side. At first, Orihime seemed not to know what to do, but it was soon revealed that she had spent a lot of time becoming an Arrancar midwife in Agatha and once Ichigo’s actual labor began, she had no trouble working with what she knew.

The process of the birth was more complex than anyone expected, but Ichigo’s body adjusted, the birthing canal formed as it was supposed to, and before long, an exhausted Ichigo held a tiny baby with hair, ear, and a tail streaked tabby blue and orange. Piercing blue cat eyes stared at them, and unlike most babies, she didn’t scream. She had a small bone fragment set that framed the outside edges of each of her eyes that was marked in red. Ichigo recognized the little child that had been playing in his inner world for the last nearly three months during the gestation. The second she was put on the floor, she was off and Grimmjow was chasing her.

“They really are born running,” Sōsuke said as he stroked Ichigo’s hair. He was half asleep on the bed and smiling as Grimmjow tried to verbally reason with the small girl. Despite being able to walk, of course, she was still a baby and couldn’t talk, nor reason. After a great chase around the room, Grimmjow had a sleeping Yazu in his arms as he returned.

“Fuckin’ kid is gonna have more energy when she gets bigger?” Grimmjow grumbled, but his face revealed a calm, loving countenance that was almost unknown on him. He didn’t notice, but Ichigo certainly did, that his hollow hole seemed to be flickering, almost as if it were attempting to fill in. Nuzzling his face into the soft hair on Yazu’s head, Grimmjow was completely lost in the smell and the feeling of the baby in his arms. The baby that was his and Ichigo’s.

The birthing room as Szayel put it was specially designed for this. It was a large room with a comfortable bed that Szayel had specially made. The bed came apart in places and could be moved to make birthing more comfortable.

“As expected,” Szayel said as he replaced Ichigo’s covers. “The birthing chamber is gone, and the birth canal as dissipated.”

“Can I hold her?” Orihime asked, tentatively looking at the baby in Grimmjow’s arms.

He nodded, handing the child to her and she smiled. “Careful,” Grimmjow muttered. “She’s got a full set of feral teeth.” He idly reached up and rubbed his arm. She’d already gotten him once.

“I know, I’ve helped several Arrancar give birth in Agatha. So different from humans but a lot the same too. I don’t think Ichigo realized who I was, though,” she commented as she looked to Ichigo’s sleeping face.

Grimmjow shook his head. “He didn’t.” He paused. “The last few weeks he has been considerably out of his mind,” he added, sighing as he brushed fingers through the thick hair of the little kit’s head. “I think preparing for the baby did it, we aren’t sure. We just hope that he is more sane once he has to help look after the little one here.”

“I’m insane, not deaf,” Ichigo said, and everyone turned to see he hadn’t moved, but the black and gold eyes were staring back at them. “And not always. Shiro couldn’t help me with my sanity; he was too busy chasing her all over my inner world. But she could walk through the insanity, which made things difficult. She’s immune to it, since she was created in my insanity,” he said and stretched his arms over his head. “I’m going back to sleep though.”

Ichigo turned and snuggled into the pillows, sighing as he fell back into a deep sleep.

* * *


	12. When Loneliness is Quelled

 

[Two Months Ago]

Orihime didn’t know what to expect when Yoruichi set her down at the entrance to Agartha and she wound her way through the tunnels to find someone she knew. Most the Agarthans knew her, so that in itself was a good thing. She could expect them to treat her well, she knew. They were good people. She had given up her human life for a few months to do this. She’d moved all her things into the house that Tatsuki lived in with her husband. They had an extra room and were kind enough to let her borrow the space. She took a three month leave from her job at an office building so that she could focus on working with the Agarthans.

She found her way into Agatha and quickly located Imelda. Imelda was a bit surprised to see her, but smiled at her as she approached.

“Orihime, what are you doing here?” she asked, looking curious.

“I came because I want to learn how to help with hollow birthing,” she told her and smiled. “I want to help Ichigo, and this is a way I know how to do it.”

Imelda nodded. “Let’s go see Kriya, then. She would be the one to help you with this.”

A few minutes later, she stood in the medical ward before the suit wearing Arrancar and her companion with the mask fragment like donkey ears, Moab.

“So you are saying you want to learn how to midwife for Arrancar?” Kriya asked, running a hand over her brassy colored hair and the spikes that protruded from it. “Is this something you seriously want to do or are you just doing this out of your guilt?”

Orihime sighed, licking her lips thoughtfully because she wanted to answer correctly. “I genuinely want to help you here. It is for Kurosaki-kun that I do it, and I want to be able to help him when it comes time to birth his own baby.”

“This is no time for minor dalliances,” Kriya stated. “If you do this, you will work hard and that includes learning about the herbs and how to use them.”

“I’ve decided to learn here and then when I go back to the World of the Living, I plan to become a nurse and work toward being able to deliver babies there as well. This is something I’ve decided to do as a way of repaying things I owe.” Orihime was close to tears because she knew this was her only chance to do things right for Ichigo.

“Alright,” Kriya nodded. “I’ll teach you. But if I think for a moment that you aren’t in this with the best of intentions, I will stop.”

“I will, I promise,” she said, hands wringing in front of her.

Over the next two months, she spent a lot of time with Kerest, learning about herbs and how they were used. She found that there were herbs that relaxed, herbs that numbed pain, and herbs that were used to help along with a labor. She found that most of these things were the same as in the World of the Living, so the information would transfer when she went back to get her nursing school done. She was very serious about the aspect about going through with the whole thing and becoming a nurse with her life. She had been dismissive of life, so now she wanted to bring new life into the world.

Along with learning herbalism from Kerest, she spent a lot of time in the medical ward. Iris had improved greatly, growing more and more attached to Kira as he came back to spend time with her. She began to talk more and began to eat better for more people. Lel still spoke in planets and stars but had become less agitated all the time. He spent a lot of time with Hisagi, and seemed to like him a great deal. Andresta still came often to the medical area after he had nightmares or flashbacks, but slowly was becoming less self-depreciating. He would still often wail and moan, but he was less likely to throw himself to the floor demanding to be killed.

During this time, she got to attend her first birth, that of Chilin. Chilin had a difficult time in the last stages of the pregnancy. To make him feel better, Fereydun had taken to getting him all sorts of items to make him feel better. As the labor set in, he was wearing a lovely necklace that his mate had found him. It was a choker-like band of rhinestones with a bib of strings of more rhinestones falling down to a triangular point in the middle of his chest. Fereydun stayed right beside him during the entire thing, never moving or leaving during the whole event. Kriya was there to help guide Fereydun to aid the baby in emerging from the reiatsu chamber.

The baby was born very large, which accounted for some of Chilin’s difficulty. The little boy was born with a wild crop of blond hair that turned to black at the times. His mask fragment looked like the lower jaw of a giant lizard wrapped around his throat. They named the baby Huan. After Chilin and Fereydun had both had a chance to hold him, they let Orihime have a chance. She was amazed as she looked down at the little life that had come into existence. While a different type of existence, they deserved the right to live and just to be. She couldn’t imagine that it was ever thought of differently.

After several other births, some of which she actively participated in, she felt she was ready when Ichigo’s baby was born. She had to even use an herbal tonic on one of them when the beta was struggling to say calm enough to make it through the birth of the baby. She felt like she had been made to do this kind of work, and her sun sun riki only aided her by telling her what, if anything was wrong.

Word came down that Ichigo was due any day, so she had Nel take her up to Las Noches to wait for it. She didn’t want to miss this chance to do what she intended to do so she could help Ichigo. She was expecting a cold reception from the alphas, and was not disappointed. Jatya and Ulquiorra ignored her for the most part. Szayel ended up speaking to her at length about herbs and the things she had learned doing a midwife’s duties. Starrk had been sleeping most the time that she was there. It was Nnoitra and Grimmjow who were the most vocal with their displeasure.

“Why should you be allowed around him at all?” Grimmjow had snapped as soon as he saw her.

“Please, I’ve been working hard on becoming a midwife. I know a great deal now, and I want to help Kurosaki-kun as best I can. This is the best that I can do for him now,” she had pleaded with him, knowing that she would have to pass through their number to get access to Ichigo. Strangely, Aizen had nothing to say to her and kept to himself.

“You better not mess things up,” Nnoitra had told her and she took him to heart. She knew her life was forfeit if she in any way harmed Ichigo or the baby.

When the time came, though, Grimmjow was surprisingly cooperative. He listened to her instructions and did what she asked of him. The birth, while long, was relatively easy, and Orihime was certain the entire time Ichigo didn’t know who she was. She was sure that he was out of it more than anything. Only Grimmjow’s constant presence and reiatsu kept him calm enough to get through the birth.

After she held Yazu, she had escaped the birthing room and found a quiet place where she cried. She was found shortly by Nel.

“Why do you weep?” she asked her as she put an arm around her.

Orihime knuckled her tears away from her eyes. “I just came to realize that Kurosaki-kun, in the end, did get what he deserved, like I told him. It was after a horrible experience, but in the end, he deserves to be happy and to hold his little one in his arms. She is so much more than just a baby Arrancar, and he is so much more than he was. I just was thinking that what I said had come true after all.”  

Nel had held her tightly while she cried out her tears and then they left to go back to Agartha. Once there, she had several days before she was going to be returned to the World of the Living. She resumed her duties and helped Kriya and the other medical Arrancar with everything she could while she was there. She was serving penance, after all.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Aizen soon realized that having a baby around was a lot more interesting than he had originally thought it would be. Over the next couple months, they all watched as Yazu grew to double her size and quickly started learning to talk a little. Ichigo insisted that she sleep with him, and said that when she got a little bit older she could stay with Grimmjow as well. Now, Aizen sat on the bed in their room, watching as Ichigo played with Yazu. He was rolling a small ball back and forth between them. Aizen noted that he seemed to stay lucid more often in the time he was with Yazu and Grimmjow. There were bad days, days that Ichigo couldn’t hold onto the real world at all, and those days Yazu would spend with Grimmjow and sometimes some of the others.

Everyone quickly became attached to the little girl. She would often play with the other alphas, and they all were kind to her. Surprisingly, Nnoitra was an effective baby sitter for her. Starrk slept too much, though she would often crawl into the pile of pillows with Ichigo when he went to him.

Grimmjow came to the door, looking on Ichigo and Yazu as they rolled the ball between each other. “She’s learning fast,” he said, looking at Aizen.

Suddenly, Ichigo stopped, staring off into the distance. Both Grimmjow and Aizen wondered if they were going to have to take over for him. The ball rolled toward him and thumped into his legs, and he just continued to stare. Yazu got up and went over to him and sighed.

“Dam,” she said, knowing that Ichigo was not able to interact with her at the moment.

“Come, Yazu,” Grimmjow said, kneeling down and motioning her to his arms. She came to him and he picked her up. “Let’s go to one of the gardens and you can play in the flowers,” he told her and left.

Aizen was infinitely sad all of a sudden. The fact that Ichigo had these moments when he couldn’t do things like interact with Yazu affected him. He leaned over and brushed a hand over Ichigo’s head, smoothing the hair that was pulled back in the braid that cascaded down his back.

“Puppy,” he said, finally looking up and locking eyes with Aizen.

“Starrk?” Aizen asked with a frown. This was the first time he’d directly asked about one of the other alphas besides Grimmjow.

“Yeah, it’s time,” he said and stood up, disappearing out the door.

He followed Starrk’s scent to his rooms. He opened the door and went in, Lilynette sitting at the table while Starrk slept in his pile of pillows. Ichigo passed Lilynette and went to crawl into Starrk’s bed. Starrk stirred awake, blinking to find Ichigo had snuggled in with him in the pillows. He smiled and brushed a hand over his head. He fell asleep again, nestled together with Ichigo.

“Wake up, lazy ass,” he heard and Lilynette was shaking him.

“What is it?” he asked as he blinked wearily.

Lilynette sighed and shook her head. “I’m going to visit the Agarthans. I figure it will be a good time since your beta is here for a while,” she told him and shouldered a pack.

“You do not have to do that,” Starrk began, but Lilynette shook her head.

“I’m not going to be here while you two go at it, don’t act like you can’t smell him. Even I can smell the scent on him,” Lilynette growled and turned to leave.

Starrk watched her go and sighed, wrapping his arms around Ichigo’s sleeping form. He was curious about what Lilynette had said about the smell that she had mentioned. He sniffed deeply at his neck and realized he could smell something coming off him. He tightened his grip and felt Ichigo stir in his arms.

“Hey, you’re awake,” Starrk mumbled against his head.

“Puppy, love,” Ichigo said with a giggle.

“Love you too,” Starrk sighed out.

“Love, puppy,” he said and moved to kiss at Starrk’s mouth.

Starrk opened his mouth, letting him in and slowly deepening the kiss until their tongues were sliding against each other in a tangled bid for dominance. Ichigo eventually pulled back, panting for breath. He looked down at Starrk with hooded eyes and smiled at him. Since Yazu had been born, Ichigo hadn’t been with any of them, having been too wrapped up in the baby to do much else, but it seemed that the drives had come back and he wanted to have Starrk.

Ichigo moved down and straddled Starrk’s lap, pulling his yukata up around his waist as he did so. Starrk could easily see the state he was in and felt a throbbing in his own body as he struggled to maintain some semblance of composure. Ichigo went for the waist of his pants and pulled him free. Starrk let out a little groan as Ichigo began touching him lightly, hands barely brushing the sensitive skin. Starrk felt a little light headed and was beginning to smell the sweet scent that Ichigo exuded more and more.

He leaned forward and gave the head a cursory lick, causing a spurt of fluid to flow from the tip. He leaned forward and put his mouth around him. Starrk gasped at the contact, resisting the urge to grab him by the hair and slam his head down. Ichigo instead sucked delicately on the head, moving his tongue around it and sucking lightly. He then leaned down, taking more of him into his mouth, until Starrk could feel the constriction of his throat muscles start to press against him.

Ichigo sat up and then scooted up until they were touching each other at the hips. He leaned over and engaged Starrk’s mouth in another long, languid kiss, writhing on his lap as he sat thee, unable to keep still. Starrk bit his lip to stifle any sound he would make as he swallowed the sounds Ichigo was making as their tongues slid against each other.

When Ichigo broke the kiss he moved up and adjusted himself until he was hovering over Starrk, and then he slipped down on him. Starrk let out a strangled sound as he adjusted down on him, body flush against his lap. Starrk reached out and stroked Ichigo with his hand as he rocked back and forth, incredibly slowly and maddeningly. Starrk was sure that he was going to lose his mind from the slow and steady pace Ichigo had set, so he reached out and grabbed his ass with both hands, squeezing as he thrust upward into him sharply. Ichigo let out a low moan and ground back down against him. He started moving faster and faster, rocking into Starrk’s body, trapping himself between them. He began to slide against him to get more friction as he leaned over and locked another kiss on Starrk, undulating his body against him harder and harder. Starrk heard him nearly scream when he slammed up into his prostate and he continued to angle for that spot, making it hard for Ichigo to move on his own.

Taking a deep breath, Starrk knew he wasn’t going to last much longer. It was too much stimulation on him at one time. He squeezed Ichigo’s ass harder, knowing he was probably leaving bruises from his tight grip. The slow and steady pace from before had completely disappeared, as their bodies now slammed together, furiously seeking the release that would come soon. Ichigo was the first to find his way to the end, suddenly grabbing Starrk around the shoulders and coming hard between them.

Starrk held on for another moment, slamming up into the quivering and clenching warmth he was sheathed in a few more times before he let go, releasing a powerful burst of reiatsu. Ichigo bonelessly flopped to the side of Starrk, the yukata soiled now along with Starrk’s shirt. Starrk could hear him breathing raggedly as he came down off the high.

“What did you come to me now for?” Starrk asked as his heartrate finally began to settle.

Ichigo was quiet, merely breathing in long slow breaths for so long Starrk wondered if he’d fallen asleep. Finally, though he whispered, “It was time for you to stop being lonely.”

Starrk blinked a little in surprise. He looked down to find he’d fallen asleep in his arms. He didn’t have the heart to wake him to make him change clothes. He figured it would be okay to lay there just like this for a little while. He certainly was in no hurry to move. But what he said, about loneliness. That was the base of his hollow nature. Otherwise, Lilynette wouldn’t exist. He ran a hand over Ichigo’s head and thought again about how much things had changed in a very short time for them all.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

As soon as Ichigo entered his inner world, he was grabbed up in an embrace by Shiro. He smiled despite the tightness of his grip. In the time since they were tortured Shiro had gotten much more tactile when he saw Ichigo again. Ichigo thought it had something to do with being forced apart for so long. Of course, also having someone try to eliminate him from Ichigo’s soul might have had something to do with it.

“Shiro, can’t breathe…” Ichigo wheezed.

Shiro let go of him and stood back. “Good to see ya, King. You sent me another brat to take care of,” he told him as he pointed out into the water.

Darting around in the black tinted water was a small figure. Like Yazu, this one was running and darting about the dropping black ichor of Ichigo’s madness. He finally ran out of the water in he bubble and stood there staring at Ichigo for a minute. He was a thin boy with broad shoulders. He had long orange hair with a pair of triangular wolfish ears on top of his head in a matching color to his hair. He also had large, brown eyes. Around his left ear, a bone fragment sat that curled around to the back of his neck underneath his hair.

“Dam!” he said and embraced Ichigo, recognizing him immediately.

Ichigo hugged the child to him and smiled. “Such a strong little boy,” he said and knelt to look him eye to eye. “What is your name?”

He grinned broadly. “Hisashi,” he said and then ran back out into tainted water.

Ichigo stood up as he watched him go, jumping between buildings that he could now see in the murkiness off the water. He turned to Shiro and Zangetsu.

“The water is clearer.”

“I’ve noticed that,” Zangetsu agreed, looking out at the world outside their small bubble. “The bubble we reside in has also increased in size.”

“So am I getting my sanity back?” Ichigo wondered, walking forward to touch the bubble that was between him and his madness.

Shiro snorted. “I don’t know if I’d go that far. I think things are getting better, but what’s wrong with your head ain’t gonna just go away because you had a baby.”

He shook his head. “I don’t mean that I think it’s going to suddenly make me better. Nothing can fix everything that’s broken, but I know I’m more lucid when I’m around Grimmjow and the other, and now Yazu keeps my attention from going to the things I can’t see.”

“What do you see anyway?” Shiro asked, coming up behind him and putting his hands around him from behind.

“Different things,” Ichigo explained. “When I’m sane, it’s hard to describe it. Sometimes I see butterflies, and sometimes I see sparrows. I know that they aren’t good or bad by themselves, but sometimes they’re horrific beasts, and others they are cute and cuddly little things. I still hear the voices I created, the other Shiro and Zan, but they don’t sway me as much as they used to. The fake Shiro still whispers terrible things to me, and Zan still does the opposite of what he does.” Ichigo paused. “It’s funny what happens when you lose your mind.”

“I’m just glad you’re sane when you come in here,” Shiro told him as he squeezed him from behind again. “You can have at least a few moments when things aren’t muddled.”

Ichigo nodded. “Muddled, yes, muddled is what I feel like. Like thinking is hard to do sometimes. Other times, my thoughts come quick and what I would say is normally, but sometimes they are slow and dull. Something different about the ways in which I perceive the world around me.”

“The drawing helps,” Zangetsu pointed out.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “Drawing things in red soothes me, even when I’m agitated by the things I’m seeing. I wonder why I turned to blood for my relief. I guess it became so normal to me that I equate seeing blood to being able to think a little bit. I do wonder why, though, it became so very important to me.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Shiro said and spun him around. “My King is getting better and I get a chance to spar with the others.”

Nodding again, Ichigo looked up at the dropping ichor that fell on top of the bubble. He noted that it did indeed seem to be higher than it was.

“I should go back,” he said finally. “I’ll be back,” he told them and faded away.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

After spending almost a week with Starrk, mostly cuddling in the pillows, Ichigo came back to his room with Aizen and fell into the bed. Yazu squealed happily and crawled up to him and nuzzled into his arms. “Dam!” she said with a loud voice.

Ichigo hugged her to him and then faded into sleep again. Aizen was a bit worried by that, but figured he’d simply exhausted himself while he was with Starrk. After another week, though, Ichigo was still sleeping too much. He was only awake a few hours each day and seemed tired all the time. He wasn’t sure what was happening so he ended up summoning Szayel to check on him.

When he got there, Yazu was sitting in the bed playing with the end of Ichigo’s braid while he slept. Aizen looked at Szayel and frowned.

“He’s been sleeping a lot. Sometimes when he’s asleep, he’s impossible to awaken,” he told him as he sat down beside him.

“Hmm,” Szayel muttered. He placed his hands on his shoulders and then opened his eyes, looking at them for a minute. His hand glided down to his stomach and he arched a pink brow.

“I think he’s with child again,” he said, standing up straight. “Who has he been around?”

“Starrk,” Aizen commented, looking at Ichigo with concern. “Why, though, is he sleeping so much this time? He didn’t do this last time with Grimmjow’s baby.”

“It may have to do with the increased power level of the Primera. He could be having to use more of his energy to gestate this baby than Grimmjow,” Szayel explained. “This could happen with Segunda as well.”

Aizen nodded, reaching down and extracting the end of Ichigo’s braid from Yazu’s mouth. She was not happy about that fact and started to get fussy. It didn’t take long for Grimmjow to appear, hearing Yazu fuss.

“Yo, the brat need me?” Grimmjow asked as he sauntered into the room, hands in his pockets.

“Yes, it seems that Ichigo is gestating another child, Starrk’s this time, and it has probably put a drain on his energy. He may be like this for the entirety of this new pregnancy.” Aizen picked Yazu up and handed her over to Grimmjow.

“Want Dam!” she announced angrily.

“Hush, now,” Grimmjow said to her as he situated her on his hip. “Dam’s sleeping. Be a good girl, your brother or sister will be here soon.”

“Brudder or sister?” she repeated, looking up at Grimmjow with her sparkling eyes.

“Yeah, your brother or sister. You want someone to play with, don’t you?” Grimmjow saw that her eyes lit up, somehow understanding what he was saying to her.

She stared hard at Ichigo where he lay down on the bed. “Brudder,” she said with certainty.

Grimmjow smiled at her. “We’ll see. Come on, we’ll go play in the gardens. Won’t be long until it’ll be time to teach you to use a sword.”

Aizen watched them go and went back to stroking Ichigo’s head. Another baby so soon? He wondered how Ichigo would cope with two of them. He worried that the more were born, the more fragile he would become. He wondered if he really intended to birth a baby by each of the alphas. Six babies was going to be quite a few to get used to running all over Las Noches.

“You worry,” Ichigo said suddenly, surprising Aizen out of his reverie.

“Oh, you’re awake,” he said and looked down to see Ichigo’s eyes black and gold, and staring directly at him. “I’m sorry if I woke you.”

“No, you worry about the babies. Where my attention will be, what I will do with so many that I have given life too. Do not worry, the best things are yet to come,” he said, and his eyes bled back to normal. He blinked and looked to be following something with his eyes that no one else could see in the least. “Butterflies…” he whispered and reached out as though trying to catch them.

“Ichigo, I do worry,” Aizen said quietly, staring at him for a long time.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Two more months passed quickly for everyone. Ichigo had been bed bound for most of the time, either because Szayel said he needed to rest, or because he couldn’t help but rest. He hadn’t given too much of a fuss, which was evidence at how bone weary he was. Szayel kept monitoring him so much that Ichigo was getting used to his lab as much as his own room.

Yazu wasn’t too happy with her Dam not feeling like playing with her, and she would often get angry and throw tantrums when she was with someone besides Ichigo. Grimmjow got the brunt of the little girl’s anger, but others were on the receiving end of it more than once. She was definitely in need of Ichigo’s attention as often as he could give it to her. Luckily, he seemed more lucid during this pregnancy and grew in size quickly. Starrk often came to stay with him, sleeping beside him in the bed until Aizen would wake him and tell him to go back to his own room.

They knew it was coming up quickly, and this time Orihime came to see if she could talk to Ichigo before the birth. It was a good day, and so far Ichigo had been up and playing with Yazu and her dolls.

“Kurosaki-kun?” she asked as she came into the room.

Ichigo looked up and smiled at her. “Inoue,” he said and waved her over. “Come see how big Yazu is now.”

She smiled and came closer to the bed and looked over the little Arrancar. “She’s certainly has gotten big. She’s so adorable.”

“Thank you,” he said softly, pausing for a second as an image tried to impinge on his thoughts again.

“I don’t know if you remember, but I helped at her birth,” she told him as she sat down on the end of the bed.

Ichigo tilted his head to the side and thought for a minute. “I think I remember that. I don’t remember a lot from when the labor started until she was born. I don’t think I was very much in my right mind for that event.”

“Yeah,” Orihime nodded and watched as Yazu came crawling over to her from across the bed.

“Lady!” Yazu announced. Ichigo chuckled.

“She’s just learning to talk well. It has been interesting to see what words she has picked up,” Ichigo smiled at her. “Of course, she’s picked up some not so good ones from her father.”

Yazu grabbed a handful of Orihime’s hair, surprising her. “Fwuck!” she said as she yanked on the hair clutched in her little fist.

“Oh my!” Orihime gasped as she pulled.

“No! Yazu, you know better than to pull hair!” Ichigo admonished as he reached over, pulling her away from Orihime and sitting her on his lap. “Now sit here for a minute.”

“Do you think it will be soon?” Orihime asked as she watched Ichigo wrestle with the writhing toddler on his lap.

Ichigo nodded. “I can sense him preparing. His name is Hisashi. He’ll have a set of wolf ears.”

“Will they always have their animal parts? I haven’t seen that happen often, even among the Arrancar I’ve helped birth,” she asked, curious now.

Ichigo shrugged. “We think it has to do with them having a resurrección spirit. The thinking is that when they are older, they’ll be able to have a more humanlike appearance and then have the transformation that will… will…” Ichigo gasped. “Oh.”

“Do I need to get someone?” she asked, nervously staring at him.

He nodded. “It’s time, I think. I need Starrk,” he gasped, cringing in pain as he nearly doubled over from it.

Orihime got up and called out to Aizen who stood nearby talking to Grimmjow. “It’s time! Please, hurry!”

Aizen and Grimmjow both rushed down to the room and came in to find Ichigo trying to stay sitting up with Yazu in his arms. He was obviously starting to feel the formation of the birth canal. Grimmjow didn’t say anything, he just grabbed Yazu from Ichigo’s lap and held her to the side. Orihime was beside him.

“Just breathe.” She looked up to see a frazzled looking Starrk standing there. He began to leave but Ichigo called out to him.

“Come here, hurry up,” he said with a grimace across his face. “I’ve done this before, I’ll be…fine…” He gasped as the pains began shooting through his lower body. Starrk sat down on one side of the bed and grabbed his hand. Orihime had shifted into midwife mode, her actions practiced and sure.

Aizen and Grimmjow both waited impatiently outside the room as Orihime and Starrk stayed inside with Ichigo.

“This is the worst part to bear witness to,” Aizen said as he looked over at Grimmjow.

Yazu wasn’t happy to be held at the moment so Grimmjow set her down so she could walk around. She was much happier being able to move about the room than she was being held by anyone. They heard Ichigo cry out and they both tensed. Not much could go wrong in an Arrancar birth, but Ichigo wasn’t entirely just an Arrancar.

After what seemed like forever to Grimmjow and Aizen, Orihime opened the door and smiled at them. “Come meet little Hisashi!”

Both Aizen and Grimmjow went into the room to see Ichigo holding a little wolf eared boy with a bunch of bright orange hair on top of his head. Ichigo looked exhausted and so did Starrk, who had laid down on the bed beside him at some point. He was now propped up, staring at the little boy with a look of wonder on his face.

Grimmjow moved closer with a squirming Yazu. “Look, it’s your brother!”

Yazu stopped squirming and stared at the little baby in Ichigo’s arms. “Brudder?” she whispered and reached on tiny hand out and touched him gently.

“Everyone, I think Ichigo could use some rest,” Orihime said, reaching out and taking Hisashi from him. He was much calmer than Yazu had been at her birth and seemed quite happy to be held.

Aizen took the small child from her and smiled at his orange colored ears. He saw the bone fragment over his left ear and smiled. He was so different already from Yazu. Grimmjow held the little girl who was probably twice the size of her new brother by now.

“Two will be more difficult!” Grimmjow complained as he put Yazu back down to run around on the floor.

“At least this one seems to be less excitable,” Aizen said as he smiled at his big brown eyes.

“Who knows what he’ll be like soon?” Grimmjow said.

Inside the room, Ichigo snuggled into a lazy sleep with Starrk beside him. Starrk wouldn’t stay much longer, mostly because Ichigo needed to get some real rest. He wanted to stay with him just for a little while longer, though.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Autism Self-Advocacy Network  
> • info@autisticadvocacy.org  
> • http://autisticadvocacy.org/  
> National Alliance on Mental Health  
> • 1-800-950-6264  
> • http://www.nami.org/  
> Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance  
> • 1-800-826-3632  
> • http://www.dbsalliance.org/  
> Transgender Youth Equality Foundation  
> • 207-478-4087  
> • http://www.transyouthequality.org/  
> Trans Student Educational Resources  
> • TSER@transstudent.org  
> • http://www.transstudent.org/  
> Stopbullying.gov  
> • https://www.stopbullying.gov/  
> PACERS National Bullying Prevention Center  
> • 1-800-537-2237  
> • http://www.pacer.org/bullying/  
> Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration  
> • 1-877-SAMHSA-7  
> • https://www.samhsa.gov/  
> National Suicide Prevention Hotline  
> • 1-800-273-8255  
> • https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/  
> Suicide Prevention Resources  
> • http://www.sprc.org/  
> American Foundation of Suicide Prevention  
> • https://www.afsp.org/  
> The American Association of Suicidology  
> • http://www.suicidology.org/  
> Crisis Text Line  
> • Text "Start" 741-741  
> • http://www.crisistextline.org/  
> S.A.F.E. Alternatives  
> • 1-800-DONTCUT  
> • http://www.selfinjury.com/  
> Trans Lifeline  
> • US: 1-877-565-8860 Canada: 1-877-330-6366  
> • https://www.translifeline.org/  
> GLBT National Youth Talk  
> • 1-800-246-7743 (M-F, 4pm-12am EST/Sat, 12pm-5pm EST)  
> The Trevor Project  
> • 1-866-488-7386 (24/7)  
> • Text “Trevor” 1-202-304-1200 (F 4pm - 8pm EST)  
> • http://www.thetrevorproject.org/  
> Disaster Distress Helpline  
> • 1-800-985-5990  
> • Text "TalkWithUs" 66746  
> National Sexual Violence Resource Center  
> • 1-877-739-3895  
> • http://www.nsvrc.org/  
> RAINN- Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network  
> • 1-800-656-4673  
> • https://www.rainn.org/  
> National Sexual Assault Hotline  
> • 1-800-656-4673  
> The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence  
> • 303-839-1852  
> • http://www.ncadv.org/  
> The National Domestic Violence Hotline  
> • 1-800-799-SAFE  
> • http://www.thehotline.org/  
> The National Resource Center on Domestic Violence  
> • 1-800-537-2238  
> • http://www.nrcdv.org/  
> Warm Ear Line  
> • 1-866-WARM EAR (927-6327)  
> • http://warmline.org/  
> National Human Trafficking Resource Center  
> • 1-888-373-7888  
> • Text BeFree (233733)  
> National Runaway Safeline  
> • 1-800-RUNAWAY (786-2929) (24/7)  
> • http://www.1800runaway.org/  
> USA National Child Abuse Hotline  
> • 1-800-422-4453 (24/7)  
> National Safe Place  
> • Text SAFE and your current location to the number 69866 (24/7)  
> • http://nationalsafeplace.org/  
> National Eating Disorders Association  
> • 800-931-2237 (M-F, 11:30 am-7:30 pm EST)  
> • http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/  
> ANAD: National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders  
> • 630-577-1330 (M-F,12 pm-8 pm EST)  
> • http://www.anad.org/


End file.
